


At the Viscount's Keep

by missema



Series: In Modern Kirkwall [1]
Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age II
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Attraction, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, F/M, Flirting, Government, Kirkwall, Minor Character Death, Oral Sex, Politics, Romance, Slow Dancing, Threesome - F/F/M, Weddings, Workplace, Workplace Relationship, Workplace Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-20
Updated: 2012-04-08
Packaged: 2017-10-24 20:11:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 114,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/267405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missema/pseuds/missema
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a modern AU, Hawke moves back to Kirkwall after years away working in politics in other parts of the Free Marches.  She's back to dealing with her family, her friends and Kirkwall's politics. Nori Hawke actually had reservations about returning home until she finds herself falling for a co-worker, then she's sure it's a bad idea. But Hawke loves bad ideas best of all, and proceeds to fall headfirst in love with Bran -- her boss's boss.</p><p>Updates and revisions in progress as of Feb 2016. Chapters 1-11 updated for readability, grammar and editorial changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Leaving Tantervale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N - This is a modern version of the Viscount's Keep with some of the characters from the game working in closer quarters with Hawke.
> 
> This story is based on characters and a world owned by Bioware. I wrote this original story, but do not own the characters.
> 
> * * *

_Norina Hawke is the daughter of the late Malcolm Hawke, assemblyman for Kirkwall from the Hightown district and the former Leandra Amell of the Kirkwall Amell family. She studied in Val Royeaux, Ferelden and Cumberland earning a Master of Public Administration degree before joining the office of Assemblyman Johnsten of Tantervale as a Policy Consultant. She is the author of several articles and essays about climate change and food deserts, including one in the most recent Denerim Royal Review._

Nori was reading the program from an event she'd spoken at sometime in the last year or so, the exact date escaped her memory. The event had been societal, a luncheon for women of some sort. Not a professional presentation or she wouldn’t have been obliged to be biographied by who her parents were before her own achievement. She grimaced at the words "Kirkwall Amell family". It galled her that people still put such stock in lineage, even after they'd met her Uncle Gamlen. She’d picked up the glossy paper while she was packing up her apartment in Tantervale. Crushing it into a glossy ball with one hand, she pitched it into the large garbage bag she was filling as she cleaned.

There was so much stuff to get through. Why did she have so many books? Nori cursed as she went to make up another small box for them. She was moving back to Kirkwall at long last, after a decade away. It was never her intention to stay in Tantervale for long after her father died. Though she was Fereldan by birth, she'd grown up in Kirkwall. Her good friend Aveline still lived there, along with her mother and younger twin siblings, Bethany and Carver.

Her father, Malcolm Hawke had been a member of the Assembly representing Kirkwall for most of her life before he'd died three years previously. The Assembly was an elected group of people, four from each city state in the Free Marches that met to talk about the governing and relations between the states and with the rest of Thedas. It was a prestigious position, but not especially powerful -- the Free Marches remained a confederation with the power concentrated at the city-state government level. Nori had always admired her father's work, his dedication to public service. He'd loved being able to bring the thoughts of Kirkwall to a national and sometimes even Thedas-wide level. His vision of a more unified Free Marches was the cornerstone of his political life and had piqued her interest in politics.

When it came time for her to choose a field of study at university, she followed in her father’s footsteps. After she got a degree in political science, she went back for a graduate degree in Public Administration. She'd never had a desire to go to law school,  though her mother had tried to persuade her to attend from time to time in the past. At twenty-eight, she just didn't see herself developing an interest in law school anytime soon. It hadn't felt like her path, for as similar as she was to her father, she had no desire to imitate him in all of his decisions. Wasn't it enough that she looked like him? Nori had inherited his dark Rivani coloring, thick black hair, rounded nose and brown eyes.

As a child she'd been jealous when Carver and Bethany were born and periodically as they grew up. The twins always had each other, so close that they unknowingly excluded others. She’d felt out of place in her own family -- older than the two twins by seven years and vastly different in looks. The twins favored the Amell side so much, her father often wondered aloud if they even had any of him in them. Malcolm worked a great deal, often absent from events and coming home too late at night in her childhood memories. Nori hadn’t been a sad or lonely child, but was always aware of how different she was from her siblings.

Her father had taken to calling her _gemina_  once she confessed her jealousy to him. It meant twin, his twin, in Tevene. Tevene was the language of old, there were some Tevinters that still spoke it, but it had become somewhat relegated to lawmakers and historians. At the memory, a wistful pang swept through her. Nori missed hearing him call her that, but then again she missed her father every day.

As far as she’d run to get away from it, now it felt right to go back, back to Kirkwall where she'd grown up. Since her dad died, she wanted to be closer to her family. Her mother called more often, never asking her to come home, but telling her about job opportunities and political news. Bethany and Carver both lived at home; Carver was in graduate school for his art and Bethany just liked being near their mother. She had a degree in architecture and a job with a local firm. She enjoyed it, and Nori was proud, she definitely had a mind for it and an eye for elegant design.

There had been more than a few places interested in her, both in the public and private sectors. Nori chose to continue her public service, setting aside a job that would have paid three times as much to work for a corporation. Maybe one day, if she ever burnt out on politics, but that day wasn’t today. In Kirkwall she'd be a "Senior Policy Analyst" within the office of the Viscount, a good transition to a more influential position with a decent pay rise. Without formal opposing parties in the city-state, the Viscount's Office had to be vigilant about the policies they adopted, especially in regards to businesses and the environment. The Viscount was still appointed in Kirkwall, but by a magistrate from a short list of candidates instead of by a consensus of nobility. The Assembly of the Free Marches could veto candidates put forward but only as a very last resort. Things were still done very close to tradition here, even with all the modern politicking that went on.

Nori was glad to leave Tantervale and go to a more visible position. Assemblyman Johnsten had been eager to bandy her name and connections about, but slow on giving her actual work. Wanting to leave didn't make it any easier and it certainly didn't make packing any easier. As much as she wanted to be around her family again, picking up her life and packing it into boxes was causing her to reflect and making her hesitant about the future, a little too stuck in her past. But that was exactly why she needed to go. The thought of starting over in a new apartment, a new job was daunting and exciting at the same time. In Kirkwall she had a great apartment waiting for her in a new construction. An old friend of hers always had his ear to the ground with these sorts of things and he'd been able to get her a loft near her new job in the Viscount's Keep. Onward and upward, she thought to herself as she selected a new song to bump up her packing momentum.

Music rang out of the tiny speakers of her phone and she tried to distract herself by singing along. This place had come to mean so much to her, it was more than just walls. After she'd moved here from Cumberland where she'd gone to graduate school and worked for a few years, this place had become her first real adult home. It was incredible how the off-white rented walls could contain so much of her life. Nori shoved a mixed pile of video games and movies into a box. She'd sort them out in Kirkwall.

Sighing, she went to take care of her glasses, dishes and other breakable items. Taking a sheet from the pile of packing paper, she carefully wrapped an empty picture frame, a pang tugging at her heart. It was a frame with those silly words on it that seem so relevant when in love. Some time before it had held a picture of her and Anders, her overworked ex-boyfriend who was the head physician at a free clinic.

They'd found each other at an event, she'd been there to network and he'd been there filling his pockets full of dinner rolls as he lectured people about health care. She'd liked him instantly. He was smart, funny, charming and endlessly compassionate. Two years later all they'd been doing was working at their respective jobs, neglecting each other. They'd ended it amicably enough six months before, but it still made tears well in her eyes to think of what almost was between the two of them. More pieces of the past she’d be leaving behind.

Carver and her mother were coming the next morning to help her oversee the movers and get her back to Kirkwall. Nori didn't own a car; she rode the bus everywhere or walked. It kept her in touch with the populace, and she liked the exercise. Driving had never been her thing, it made her anxious more often than not. She was able to drive but never wanted the responsibility of owning a car, especially not with how much she traveled for the job. Her new apartment in Kirkwall was a short walk from her office, she'd made sure to find one where she could walk or take the bus to everything she'd need.

She was flagging in her packing spree, but she was over half done already. Anders had always teased her about the lack of decoration in her apartment, but it made it easier to pack up. Aside from her books and clothes, there wasn't much to do beside stick it all in boxes to sort out later. A few things here and there, packing up sheets and video games, her dinnerware and the odd assortment of cups she'd collected over the years was the extent of it. The movers would see to her furniture, the boxes she'd packed and the electronics she'd carefully replaced in their original boxes, having saved them for just an occasion.

It was Thursday night and she'd be back in Kirkwall the next day. After getting the key to her new apartment, she'd stay with her family until her things were delivered on Saturday and on Monday it was off to her new position at the Viscount’s Keep. How quickly her life would change, spinning into something different within the course of a week. Last month she was still debating leaving her apartment when the lease was up and now she was moving halfway across the Free Marches.

That night she slept amongst the boxes, feeling a bit as she had when she was a child. She and the twins had spent many nights in makeshift forts, tents and canopies. The next morning she rushed around, carelessly putting whatever was left out into boxes and suitcases, looking around the emptying rooms and making sure everything of hers was packed. Her mother and brother showed up early. Mother went behind her cleaning while Carver took her suitcases out to the waiting car. When the movers came, he helped them by staging the boxes at the door, never letting them get too far into the apartment. Her brother towered over the three men, and they acted as if he were the foreman to their group. They were done in less than an hour.

"Are you positive that's everything darling?" Her mother was standing outside the car holding the trunk open and looking in. Nori’s personal bags were in there, along with her computer.

"I'll double check," Nori said quickly even though she was sure her apartment was empty.

She just didn't want to argue with her mother, or worse, accidentally forget anything. Carver made a grumbling sort of noise from the front seat but she ignored him. He was always impatient with her, even when he agreed.

The apartment was cleaned and empty, thanks to her mother bustling around while Carver oversaw the movers. She checked everything, under the sinks and made sure there was no laundry in the washer or dryer as she walked through. It was strange to see it like this, to think she'd no longer live in the same city, shop at the same stores, or even see the same people. Nori looked in the corners of the rooms and opened all the closet doors before leaving. Everything was cleared out and she could drop her keys off with the leasing office.

"It's all gone, Mother,” she reported as she came back to the car. “Let's stop at the office and head back to Kirkwall."

"All right then, if you're ready, my darling," her mother said. She didn’t look back at the apartment, just forward. Carver was driving.  
  
Out of the window of her mother's car, Nori took one last look at Tantervale and briefly mourned the life she'd be leaving behind. They were passing the statue of Cade Arvale, the Champion of Tantervale from the old times, and Nori's sadness deepened for a moment before looking ahead towards Kirkwall. There had been enough of this the night before, and it was mostly out of her system. She was ready to leave.


	2. Back to Kirkwall

The Office of the Viscount was always busy in some sort of way, usually political. But today they were busier than they normal as the senior staff prepared for the arrival of Norina Hawke. A new employee wouldn’t usually merit so much bustle, but Lady Hawke was special. They were all eagerly awaiting her arrival as part of the staff. The daughter of Malcolm Hawke -- a political legend in the Marches, she herself was considered an environmental policy expert. He had more than a few people racing around, ironing out the last minute details before they welcomed her. Bran walked down the hallway to the room that would become her office, making sure that it wasn't too small. They were running out of room in the old building where the senior staff worked, but he couldn't have her office in a broom closet.

Getting her to work here was a coup and everyone in the office was well aware of the fact. They were humming with excitement about it, wondering what kind of insights and energy she might bring. Viscount Marlowe Dumar called her one of the best political minds in Thedas when she was eighteen, when she’d been working as her father’s aide. Now, a decade later, Dumar had nearly let her name her own salary to get her working on his staff. Her name came up frequently, though there had been no position for her until recently when Emeric, their last policy expert, retired. Bran authorized his deputy Sebastian Vael, to offer her extra incentives to get her to join their team. It had taken him a while, but she'd come around to their offers eventually.

"If she needs anything, tell her to come and see me, not Sebastian." Bran said to the woman that was to be her assistant, Brennan. He'd found her in the office they were preparing for her, filling the desk with office supplies and ordering a new computer brought into the disused space.

Technically Norina would be Sebastian's direct report, but that was more for ease of protocol than anything else. Bran didn’t like having more people under him than necessary, and it made Sebastian more bearable. The busier Vael was, the better, in most cases.

"Certainly, messere," Brennan answered. He liked Brennan, which was why she was picked to move up from the office pool to be an assistant. She was cheeky at times, but never one to question his orders.

“I hope I won’t be bored with this one,” she said.

“I highly doubt it,” Bran answered. “If anything, you’re likely to be much more busy once she settles in.”

“Good thing I like it that way, messere,” Brennan said. Bran saw her smile as he left the room.

He hoped that Brennan would be a good fit for Norina Hawke. It was past time she had been promoted, but there had been no opportunities before. Her mind was sharp and she was loyal, which was necessary in their work. Some people didn’t always take full advantage of their assistants, and he hoped that wouldn’t be the case with Brennan. It would be a crime to underutilize her, as some in the office did. Sebastian Vael kept his assistant busy with menial tasks all day, fetching his dry cleaning, organizing his dates but the Viscount's assistant, Elthina, managed every aspect of his life.

Bran took one look back at the office, it would do. There was a window and a door, and though it wasn’t spacious, it would be enough. He walked away wondering if Norina was anything like her father. He knew a little of her family, Leandra Amell was from Kirkwall and around ten years older than he and her late husband was older than her by a few years. If Malcolm Hawke had lived, Bran had no doubt he would have been successful in his initiative to switch the balance of power from the states to the central government, effectively creating a republic. There was a lot of resistance in the old governments of the city-states, particularly from the ruling Vael family of Starkhaven, but the idea had a lot of merits. From what he knew of her work in Tantervale, she hadn't been vocal about her opinion on the idea but she was responsible for much change there. Her expertise was in public policy, not government reform, however.

He wondered if his son might be able to remember more about the Hawke family if he pressed. Bran had a son, Morgan Jason who was a couple years younger than the Hawke twins. His son, who preferred to be called Jason, hadn't been able to offer much insight when he'd asked about Norina, only saying that she was ‘cute and unattainable’ back when he’d been in high school. Carver Hawke had been a teammate of his for a short while, but Bran couldn’t remember which sport. He couldn't fault his son for admiring her; he'd seen her at an event last year and thought something similar even though she was thirteen years younger than Bran.

"I'm leaving," Bran announced to his assistant Ruvena.

She was another good one. Bran had seen it in her, the dedication and intellect and promoted her accordingly. She was young, but whip smart and as good as reading what he wasn’t saying as she was at following his directions to the letter. Perhaps she knew about Norina Hawke. He thought he remembered her dating the youngest sister, Bethany, for a while.

"Home?" Ruvena picked up her phone, calling down to the driver in the waiting car.

There was an art exhibit that he'd read about in the paper this morning at a small gallery near Old Hightown. If he knew her, she’d read the same article and had already alerted the driver that Bran might wish to stop there on his way home.

"No, there's an exhibit I want to go see first," he said and she nodded.

“I thought so. More modern stuff, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Contemporary. Modern and contemporary are two different styles,” Bran corrected. She smiled at him with her work smile, one that showed that she was neither listening or caring. He had one of his own that was similar.

“The driver should already be downstairs. He knows about the exhibit. Have a good night, Bran,” she said.

“Night, Ruvena.”

He walked by her desk to get to his own office, then came back out with his coat half on and his briefcase in one hand. Most people knocked off earlier on Fridays, they were slow days and people had lives they wanted to get on with. He didn’t mind working late, but there was no point when he’d be back the next morning. So it was an early night for him, but he didn’t want to go straight home. He was glad the driver had instructions, he could use the time in the back to read through some emails without interruption.

Bran hardly drove himself around the city, preferring to use the car provided by the Viscount's office. He was in no mood to go back to his house and sit around for the rest of the night. As he was sliding into his overcoat, he realized he hadn’t put his suit jacket back on. Off it went, then back on after he put on the jacket and straightened his tie. An early night meant that he could walk around the gallery and enjoy himself before all of the pieces were gone. Truth be told, he wasn’t sure if he even liked the artist that much, but it was worth it to go and see things in person. He’d been pleasantly surprised more than a few times. Articles hardly ever did art justice.

Bran said goodnight several more times as he walked out of the building, but didn’t remember the faces that said it to him. He was tired, bored and though happy to be away from work, not thrilled to be alone. There were numbers he could call for companionship, to have someone show up at the gallery dressed up and hanging on his arm. Maybe he would, just for some conversation. Serendipity might even be free, if he paid enough.

#

Nori's new apartment was in a building called "Soaring Towers", whatever that meant. She suspected what it meant was that the building was new and had to have some kind of theme to make it marketable. Soaring Towers was two building complex with six floors of lofts each. She'd picked the space because it was a one bedroom loft and she liked the giant windows in the apartment, the way they let her see outside without being outside at night. The movers had left her apartment as a maze of boxes, and she and her sister Bethany had spent most of the weekend getting it partially unpacked. They were mostly done. Almost. Not really, but unpacking had never been her thing, and she needed a little more furniture.

"Why do you have so many black suits?" Bethany was shaking out yet another plastic dry cleaner's bag with a suit in it.

"They're versatile. Besides, I can hardly wear the fun stuff to work. It’s all black, navy, beige and grey suits," Nori said.

"What about these ball gowns then?"

"Ah yes, that’s the fun stuff. You remember Mother and Father getting dressed up for events. That's all I thought politics was for a few years, ball gowns and tuxedos. Too bad it really isn't," Nori said.

"Oh Nori, this one's beautiful!" Bethany exclaimed, holding up a floor-length strapless taffeta gown in a deep purple with a sparkling bodice. That had been an extravagance, but one that she hadn’t been able to resist buying.

"I haven’t worn that one yet. I thought I might in the fall, Johnsten always had fundraisers and such around then. I don’t know what they do here, or if I will get to wear it at all here in Kirkwall.”

"You're so lucky,” Bethany said, holding the dress out at arm’s length. “I never get to go to anything where I'd need a dress like this."

"Never say never. You could go as my date one of these days. But you wouldn't think I was lucky if you got to go with me. It's all just another part of work. I spend a fair amount of time avoiding dances with doddering politicians with wandering hands that want to talk about Father."

"That's disappointing, Sister. Can't you just lie and tell me it's wonderful?" Bethany asked

“Fine then, it’s always wonderful, even when you’re the one assigned to shill for money for whatever reason. Absolutely glamorous. Nothing at all like I just said. I went on a yacht once and didn’t catch anyone kissing anyone else’s spouse below decks,” Nori said. and they both laughed, hanging up more clothes as they went on.

Her sister helped her unpack and kept her from being too lonely in the new apartment. Beth had liked Nori's new space, her critical architect's eye praising the building and the beauty in the design of her window wall. Whenever Bethany gave a professional assessment was one of the few times that Nori had no clue what she was talking about. Not that she would ever stop Beth from giving her professional opinion, they were all proud of her work. She loved hearing her sister go on, her enthusiasm for good design was infectious.

Now she just had to get through tomorrow, and the next day after that. Nori fell asleep, mostly because of the physical work of unpacking the boxes and cleaning and putting things away had tired her out. Her mind was still racing when she got into bed, wondering, speculating what her first day at a new job in almost five years would be like. Kirkwall was her home, but it had never been her political scene. What would she find tomorrow?  
  
Rolling over so she faced away from the windows, Nori let her thoughts drift. Tomorrow would be here soon enough. With any luck, she wouldn’t go running back to Cumberland by the end of the week. She liked a challenge however, and hopefully there would be one here.


	3. First Day

After a weekend of unpacking and settling in, Nori almost wanted to put off going to work on Monday. Almost. There was more excitement in her than dread, but it was excitement for everything, not just her new job. It had been such a long time since things had changed, and she needed the shake up. Kirkwall was different than she expected, changed from her memories. She needed to get acquainted with the city-state again, to mesh her recollections with how the city had changed. There was plenty of running around the city she wanted to do, just to feel like part of it again. It was good to be home, though Nori was still unsure if Kirkwall really felt like home to her.

Plus, there was still unpacking to be done, and furniture shopping looming in her future. When her alarm sounded from the nightstand next to her head, she entertained a brief thought about calling Sebastian Vael and tell him she'd be in tomorrow due to some sort of moving mix-up, but discounted it almost immediately. Better to get this tiring first day over with so she could get used to a new routine. The tingles that welled in her belly were reason enough to go -- she wanted to see what Kirkwall, this new job, everything -- had in store for her.

There was the slight gnawing of nerves, chipping off bits of her excitement and replacing it with anxiety.They didn’t get the better of her, but they were there. When she thought about it, she found that she wasn't nervous about the newness of her job but more the vagueness of the description. There was nothing in there about exactly what she would be doing from day to day or the people she might lead. All jobs could be like that, get in there and wind up doing something completely different than what she’d interviewed for, but politics especially liked to play fast and loose with the positions. Nori snorted ungainly into her silent apartment as she considered her own phrasing. It was true, however she put it.

Deep breath in, deep breath out; she thought to herself. She'd done this before, led teams, defined nebulous wording in laws and policies, worked for important and powerful people. This was no different than any other job, it would just be a matter of figuring it out. Plus, Varric would be there. Varric Tethras was an old friend of hers, the one who’d helped her find her apartment. He had an ear to the ground for that sort of thing, most of the time. He kept up his family business in investing in businesses. She’d never really understood it, but it was helpful.

For her first day she dressed in a black suit, a black sleeveless dress with a long jacket that went over it and pumps. Power suit. Nothing radiated power like a designer suit paired with the tallest shoes she owned. Outside the temperature was warm, but not anything approaching hot. On her first day she wanted to err on the side of being too conservative than being too flamboyant. In Tantervale she would have added a colorful scarf and bag, or a belt to break up the color but she didn't know a thing about this office and their dress codes and preferences. Not knowing added more fuel to her already nervous mind. She hated not knowing things. After checking her hair for what felt like the twentieth time she finally left her apartment, walking the ten minute stretch to her new office building. Walking in heels to work on her first day wasn’t her most well thought out plan but she was there before her feet started to really ache. Tonight, she was either going to dig out her walking shoes or buy new ones.

"Welcome to the Office of the Viscount," a pleasant female voice greeted her just after she entered the building.

A perky woman in a cobalt blue suit smiled at Nori as she walked through the overlarge double doors. Nori looked at her coiffed hair and the smile stapled onto her face. This was certainly different than the Assembly, there no one greeted you or even let you walk five feet in without going through a metal detector.

The Viscount’s office was still housed in the old Viscount’s Keep in Hightown, but there had been so many additions it was probably triple the size it had been when built. Nori looked around her at the impressive glass and stone building. It was remodeled resemble the old Keep in some ways, but instead of a throne room there were offices and hallways on the second floor and access to the third floor, which she remembered from past visits as being mostly conference and meeting rooms. The place where there would have been barracks housed support staff and interns.

People dressed in suits were bustling all around her, showing their identification cards to gain access and going about the business of governing without a thought. There were many people going in and out, but most of them either wore suits or were the pages that wore Kirkwall livery. They all looked impressively busy. Nori smiled down at the woman who'd spoken to her, and saw she already had a generic id pass at the ready to give to her.

"Good Morning, my name is Norina Hawke. I'm joining the staff today and I'm supposed to see Messere Vael."

"Welcome, Messere Hawke, please go up the stairs and head to the left. When you pass the statue, go down the next hallway. The Deputy Chief of Staff's office is the third door on the right."

"Thank you," Nori murmured, palming the id pass she’d been handed.

She walked towards the wide staircase situated beneath a large atrium of stained glass. The light filtering through the decorative glass danced on the floor, coloring the marble tiles from their white veined with pale grey to different shades of rich blues, reds and yellows. Nori stopped to admire the artistry and recognized the design as she was finally offered an unimpeded view. The sigil of Kirkwall shone down from the skylight above, but she couldn’t see it clearly when she craned her neck up to look.

Past the smiling elderly security guard, she mounted the steps. Her thoughts turned to the people she saw working in the impressive building as she walked by desks, offices and rows of grey cubicles. There were several faces she recognized but could not name immediately, and someone even waved to her as she walked by. People here knew her, remembered her, and if they didn’t know her they knew of her father. She’d forgotten how much that meant. It made a strange pride swell in her chest with an eddy of nervousness. 

She hadn’t met Sebastian Vael before, but through her work with Assemblyman Johnsten, she was quite familiar with his parents. They were still the reigning Prince and Princess of Starkhaven, and plenty popular to boot. She'd met several other members of his family during the course of her work but relied more on what she'd heard about the Vaels than her pleasant diplomatic contact with them. They were royalty, rich and influential well outside of their realm of Starkhaven, with deep ties to Orlais. Sebastian was a black sheep of sorts. She remembered him dating a Fereldan model several years back, but that fizzled out. He wasn't the son that would inherit the Prince title so he'd left to make his mark elsewhere.

She passed a bronze plaque set into a wall to her right, showing the names of the previous Viscounts of Kirkwall. Nori ran a finger across the names she’d been made to memorize as a schoolgirl. Maybe one day hers would be up there, if it struck her fancy. That made her smile and recall a school trip to the keep. They’d lined up to take pictures sitting on the replica Viscount’s throne, wearing a small crown. Nori wondered if her mother still had hers around the house somewhere. She might look for it one day, but that thought was lost as she moved on down the hall, stopping when she got almost to the end of it.

"Hello, I'm Norina Hawke." Nori started to introduce herself to a young man in a recessed alcove. 

The well-dressed young man was seated right in front of an office that bore the gold nameplate 'Sebastian Vael'. He began to answer her with a smile, but was interrupted by Vael himself.

"Lady Hawke, please come in!" His voice boomed from within the office, and the man at the desk nodded at her to go by him. She had a feeling that he would try to bodily stop her if she tried to get in without permission. He looked the type.

This was most certainly Sebastian Vael. He looked like a Vael, almost just like his father, except with small differences. They had the same tanned skin and blue eyes, the exact same nose, but Sebastian was taller and leaner, very broad about the shoulder. He was sitting behind his desk, but rose to shake her hand, looking her straight in the eye as he did. Clad in a pinstriped grey suit, he was strikingly handsome and looked all business.

"It's good to finally meet you, my Lady Hawke. My brother, the heir of Starkhaven, speaks very highly of you, and of course our fathers were acquainted," he said smoothly, glossing over the fact that their fathers were mostly on opposite sides of issues.

His voice held the timbre of the rolling brogue native to Starkhaven; it was the only thing about Starkhaven she liked, truth be told. She nodded at him in acknowledgement of his comment. Everyone in politics always said something about her father upon meeting her. She felt his eyes on her, taking everything she did, making her slightly uncomfortable. She spoke again out of a sense of obligation to keep the conversation from going silent and awkward. 

"Thank you, messere. It's good to meet you as well." 

"It's Sebastian. Let's get you set up in an office. If I might say so, you look lovely today." His plump lips parted into a wide, dazzling smile as he came from behind his desk and walked out of his office at a brisk pace. Nori hustled in his wake to keep up with him.

"I would give you a tour, but unfortunately I had to reschedule a phone call to take place in a few minutes, so it will have to wait.” He shot her a sheepish grin, which Nori returned. She didn’t want to seem as though she didn’t understand the demands of the job on the first day. Schedules fluctuated, she got that. Sebastian went on.

“Fenris knows you're here and will come up and set up your computer ID and phone. Oh, and you'll need a badge to get in and out of the building after hours. Security down at near the front desk handles that."

She watched him walk in front of her, his lean body evident by the fashionably slim cut of his suit. He was very, very attractive but not really her type. There was something about him that she couldn’t put her finger on, but it felt far too knife-sharp and dangerous for her tastes. Sebastian wasn’t just as genial and mild-mannered as he presented, but Nori wasn’t sure how that would play into their working life just yet.

"Yes Messere...Sebastian." Nori corrected herself, nodding even though his back was to her. He was leading her down a short hallway not far from his own office. He pushed the door open to a room and turned on the light.

It was small, but it had a window, which was doubtless an honor in a crowded building like the Keep. It had the slightly fresh smell of new paint and a new desk but the chair behind it looked comfortable and worn. Against the wall was an empty bookshelf and a glass display shelf, presumably for displaying her degrees and awards. In front of the polished desk sat two leather chairs for visitors. Sebastian waved a hand as if he had conjured the whole room just for her.

"Get settled in and someone should be by. Your assistant is around here somewhere, a brown haired lass called Brennan." Sebastian leaned towards her, lowering his voice as he said "I look forward to working with you." He gave her a meaningful look before bustling out of her office. Already? Nori thought, annoyed. She hadn't even been here for ten minutes.

Nori hung her coat on a hook behind the door and sat at her desk. It was full of office supplies -- pens, paper and those little tiny sticky flags used to mark documents. She turned on her computer and waited for it to start up, but knew she wouldn't be able to access anything without proper sign in credentials. Her phone helpfully had the number taped to it and she copied it down on a sticky note and put it in her bag. She looked over at the bookcase, thinking that she had plenty of books that she could bring from home to fill it when a white haired man knocked on her door, breaking her train of thought.

He was young, much younger than the shock of white hair suggested, and breathtakingly graceful as he moved across the room towards her. Nori just looked at him, his large green eyes and dark eyebrows, the sleeves on his white dress shirt rolled up to reveal tattoos on both forearms. He was the only man she'd seen in here not wearing a tie and he gave her the impression that he did what he wanted, whatever that was.

"Welcome. I am Fenris. I need to set up your computer."

"Oh, of course. I'm Nori," she said, holding her hand out to him. He took it, but instead of shaking it, he covered her hand with both of his.

"It's nice to meet you Nori." His voice was pleasantly deep and accented slightly, Tevinter maybe?

"Is your name really Fenris?" She asked unable to hold in the question any longer.

"Well, that's my last name. My first name is Alessandro but I prefer Fenris."

"Alessandro isn't a bad name."

"No, my mother didn't think so either but it's much too long when you're five and no one can pronounce it," he answered. 

Nori heard the trill of her own laugh before she was aware that she’d even started laughing. Fenris looked at her, but then gave a small chuckle as he sat down behind her desk. Her own laughter had taken her by surprise and Nori realized she was flirting with him, ever so slightly. This was an improvement over Tantervale. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been flirted with while with the Assembly.

He sat in the chair behind her desk and she sat in the leather guest chairs facing it. It was awkward to look at him and see his full concentration on the screen. She had nothing else to do at the moment so she sat in the chair opposite him rummaging through her bag and checking her email on her phone to avoid staring at him. Not that she would have minded staring at him, she found Fenris more than a little attractive. But her email soon absorbed her, a message from Bethany wishing her well on her first day, and one from their mother that said almost the same. Carver had texted her that morning with ‘go get em’. 

"So, they finally found someone to fill this office." A deep voice said as she was engrossed in the tiny screen on her phone.

"Varric!" she said rising out of her chair so she could face him. "Who let you in the building?" He laughed and she hugged the ruggedly handsome stout man. Varric Tethras was the younger brother of Bartrand Tethras. Varric was the architect of his brother’s rise to the Assembly in Kirkwall. He had nothing to do with Bartrand’s eventual fall, but there was no convincing him of that.

Bartrand was all brute strength, he had been a force in the Assembly. Loud and opinionated, he openly supported commerce over people, infuriating Malcolm Hawke to no end. Varric had worked diligently behind the scenes, trying to shore up popular support of his brother through speeches and appearances. When his overambitious brother fell as spectacularly as he had risen, Varric managed the damage control and impressed many along the way. As a gifted wordsmith, he had fit in easily with the Viscount's staff after his brother's resignation from the Assembly. Varric was supposedly dating a woman named Bianca, but Nori had never met her. They had been breaking up and getting back together for years and that was the way he liked it. 

"Nori, you've finally come back to cause trouble in Kirkwall. I missed you." He let her out of the embrace. "Hey Fenris," he said over her shoulder. Fenris grunted a greeting back at him, occupied with whatever he was doing to her computer. 

"You know I couldn't resist your charms forever. How goes the speech-writing?" Varric was the Senior Speechwriter for the Viscount.

"The same as always, I create brilliant prose so our fair leader can read it to a dozen people who aren't listening."

"It must be such a burden."

"You have no idea, my lady, none at all. Listen, I have to head to my office but I'm just down the hall if you need anything. Lunch later?"

"Sure," Nori said smiling.

Varric walked out of her office, whistling a tune she didn’t recognize. Fenris was writing something down on a sticky note at her desk when she looked back at him.

"Alright." Fenris said to her a few minutes later. "Your computer is all set up. You can get onto the internet with no restrictions, your email address is your name at vo dot kirkwall dot frm. Your phone is working, all you have to do is call your own extension to set up your voicemail. I think that's it. When you log into the computer, your user name will pop up but it will prompt you to change your password. I wrote down my extension just in case you need anything."

"Thank you," Nori said, trying to remember everything.

"No problem. As I said, if you need anything give me a call."

Fenris smiled at her. She watched him leave her office, wondering what she'd do next. At least she had the internet now. She logged onto her computer, setting up her email with no problem. A small woman with messy light brown hair poked her face into her office as she was reading through the emails that had been addressed to all senior staff.

"Oy, are you Hawke?"

"Yes, I'm Norina Hawke," Nori said, curious to find out to whom she was speaking.

"I'm Brennan, your assistant," Brennan said, grinning at her. She had a mischievous grin, as if she were already up to her ears in something that she couldn’t or wouldn’t talk about until it was too late.

She held out a hand, then thought about it and wiped it on the side of her skirt and held it out again to Nori. Not wanting to seem rude, she shook her hand, hoping that there was hand sanitizer buried in her bag after briefly clutching the sweaty palm.

"Nice to meet you Brennan," she said.

"They've all been waiting for you. I'm surprised they aren't all lined up outside waiting to grease your pucker. Everyone's been talking about you and your dad like your family is the only one in politics. Your dad left big shoes to fill, but don't you worry, I know everything's worth knowing about this place." 

Unexpectedly, Nori laughed after that pronouncement. Brennan seemed a good sort, if a bit rough.

“I bet you do,” Nori said.

Brennan winked at her. “We’ll get you settled in and ready to take over the office. Soon as we get your email up and running. Then there’ll be no stopping us.”  
  
Nori laughed again and shook her head. Everyone seemed to think that she was her father, or at least the political reincarnation of him. At least Brennan had been honest about it, and her own abilities. Maybe they really would get some good work done together here. Nori hoped so.


	4. First Meeting

Varric was as good as his word, taking her out to lunch at a nearby bistro that seemed to serve only government workers. He had to speak to one half of them before they could even order and wave at the other half once they sat down. For once, she wasn’t the object of scrutiny, and for that Nori was glad. She sat with him out on the patio in front of the restaurant after doing no real work that morning. Brennan had taken her on a tour, making sure to highlight several times where the bathrooms were because in Brennan's mind those were the most important rooms in the whole building. They’d gotten her a real id badge, complete with horrible photo, so she could get in the next morning. She'd been greeted by the Viscount and been given a folder of work and a packet of orientation materials by Sebastian. Nori was glad to get out of the office with Varric, and secretly pleased that she didn't have to eat alone on her first day.

Sunlight warmed her face as they sat at one of the tiny metal tables. The day was clear and cloudless, with a slight breeze ruffling the paper wrappers of their food. It was still cool, but not so much as to be unpleasant in the sunshine. Nori pulled back the paper covering her sandwich as Varric dove into his.

"How's it going so far?" Varric asked her, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial pitch.

"Tell me the truth Varric, who do I need to avoid?" she asked. Nori was serious but Varric gave a cynical laugh. He wanted to say 'everyone but me', she could tell, but he refrained. She saw him give her question serious thought as he took another bite of his sandwich.

"Sebastian is savvy, but you're better. He’s seen a lot though, because of his parents. I think he might be a little smitten with you, he's been talking about you nonstop for a week.” Varric winked at her, but she ignored it. “Most of the assistants and receptionists are solid, Brennan's a barrel of laughs when she's drunk."

"She is when she isn't drunk," Nori said, thinking of their meeting.

"The IT guy, Fenris, he’s a good guy. Not talkative but will come out for a beer with us every once in awhile. Don't play him in cards, you'll lose your shirt. Lady Elegant is the Press Secretary. She's good at her job and will help you with on camera if you need it. She does most of the face time with the press, so they won't be on you as much. You won't interact with my staff too much, I can't see you needing speeches written. My guys are harmless. Giving us a heads up on interesting policy changes would be much appreciated." He gave her a sidelong glance and she nodded.

"Other than that, you can feel out your team yourself. Of the senior staff, you probably have the smallest but most dedicated staff. No interns. Emeric was well liked and has been missed but they can't lead themselves. I won't lie; your reputation precedes you. If they treat your like they are in awe, it's because they've been told your a near savant with magic political powers." Nori gave a snort of laughter before Varric continued.

"They'll do what you say because they have to, but also because they respect you. Oh, there's Bran and the Viscount, but you probably won't see too much of either. Bran's tough, he's managing a lot and makes it look easy, so don't waste his time. He doesn’t love the limelight either, so you never have to worry about him taking credit for your work with the Viscount. He’s Sebastian’s boss, but you can go to him as well. The Viscount is...whatever your father told you about him is most likely true." Varric finished, unwilling to say more in public.

She drank from the bottle of iced lemonade she'd gotten with her sandwich and thought on what Varric said. At least he'd confirmed her suspicions about Sebastian, the man had been a bit too forward for her liking. His interest was flattering but borne of speculation and circumstantial evidence; she'd be nothing like what he'd built her up to be in his head.

Their lunch passed with easier conversation after that. The sun was warm and though Varric was busy, he acted like he had nothing more pressing to do. He asked after her apartment, made sure it was up to her standards and promised to drop off a housewarming present for her later in the week. It would probably be a bottle of some potent alcohol. Varric loved to give his friends lavishly overpriced bottles of booze. Varric drove them the short distance back to the office in his pride and joy, a vintage Aston Martin that he claimed to have won in a card game.

Nori needn't have worried about filling her bookcase with her own books, Brennan brought her several tomes of local laws for her as well as ordering her an updated set of laws and initiatives from the Assembly. Sebastian popped back into her office to gift her with a beautiful leather bound set of "The Complete People's Laws of Kirkwall", the gold inlay on the cover combined with the elaborate wrapping of the books made her feel a little like the teacher's pet. Nori suspected that his assistant had bought and wrapped them long before she'd even gotten into the office that morning. Still, she appreciated it, the gift was thoughtful and gave her shelves some personality.

Now that she had email of her own, Nori found that all of Emeric’s email was being forwarded to her. He was recovering from a heart attack, poor thing, and that’s why he hadn’t been in to help transition her into his job. People were coming by from all parts of the Viscount's office to speak with her. She'd met so many new people, she couldn't remember all of their names but she became reacquainted with several old faces.

Even the Chief of Staff for the Viscount came to see her, though she wasn't a direct report of his. Bran Cavin was a major player in Kirkwall politics and was rumored to be a possible successor for the seat of Viscount when Dumar left the post. At lunch, Varric told her that the rumors were false, Bran wanted nothing less than to be the Viscount. Nori knew his son by sight only, he was younger than Carver by a few years but she remembered them playing sports together. She thought his name was Morgan but they called him something else, probably his middle name. Bran was a divorced man in his early forties, married to his job. Nori knew him, mostly by his distinctive dark red hair, but hadn't paid him much attention at events.

Nori had just unwrapped the books from Sebastian and had placed them on the shelf when Bran dropped in on her. She was standing in front of her desk, with one shoe off and foot up in the air to keep it from touching the carpeted floor. There had been something in her shoe the whole time Sebastian had been talking to her, but she didn’t want to alert him to anything wrong. Now, she had a chance to get at it. She was holding her left pump up to try and see if there was a rock or something else inside, making her step uneven and painful. The shoes weren't new, they were an older, more worn in pair, so something must have gotten in it to cause her pain. The door opened with a bang after a short, loud rap against the solid wood, and she jumped slightly at the unexpected noise. She lost her balance as she stood on one leg in her high heeled shoe and she stumbled slightly as she put her other leg down on the ground to stabilize herself before she toppled over. Damn it, if the door hadn’t slammed, she could have steadied herself.

Instead of regaining her balance, she felt arms around her, keeping her from toppling over. Bran rushed forward to help her, instinctively trying to catch her after the door banged open for him. He collided with Nori like a brick wall. She let out a small squeak as he put his arms around her, keeping her upright. Not the best way to meet your boss's boss. The paper he’d been holding was crumpled in his fist, his arms fast around her. Bran looked down at her, alarmed and she could only blink in response. He released her as soon as she became aware the protective circle of his arms, the surprisingly muscular chest she was pressed up against. Stepping out of her other shoe, she turned and smiled at him. It was bright and wide, a little embarrassed but otherwise thankful.

"It's good to see you again. Thank you for catching me," Nori said as they shook hands belatedly. Her voice was a little unsteady, but still held that lilting, playful tone.

What was wrong with her? There had to be something in this office that made her flirt with everyone today. His hands were soft and manicured and made her want to hold onto them for more than the scant time it took to shake. She didn’t, because that wouldn’t have been professional, but she did make a note to ask his assistant where he got his manicures.

"I'm sorry I startled you. I wasn’t paying attention to the door and it went wide. It was my fault," Bran said.

She studied the man who'd caught her, entirely unprepared for her reaction to him. Bran was very attractive, the memory of his body up against hers biasing her horribly in her assessment. She remembered the ginger hair, but that was about all she could recall about his physical features before he’d both startled and caught her. Nori could remember much more about his politics, the things he'd done, the schools he'd attended -- she might have looked at his CV at some point when she was interviewing with Sebastian, thinking that she might end up talking to Bran as well. She hadn’t; but wound up talking to the Viscount that day.

Standing before her was a disarmingly handsome man, tall, fit and distinguished. He had a cute bit of stubble growing on his chin and wide lips that seemed to smirk more than they smiled. His eyes were brown with flecks of gold in them. She was certain of the color because he’d been staring at her when he caught her, looking her over to see if she was hurt. The thing that undid her was his voice - how could she have ever forgotten? It cultured and smooth but pulled taut, almost too reserved. He spoke quietly, but she could tell he didn't have to raise his voice to be heard.

“Not at all. I should have been inspecting my shoes for stones more discreetly.”

Bran almost laughed, she saw it playing at the corners of his lips. “Is that what you were doing?”

“As if I could claim anything else now,” she said and laughed softly.

“Do you have everything you need?” he asked, an arm waving to indicate the office.

“Yes, thank you. I am just getting settled in again after lunch. I saw there’s a meeting this afternoon. Is that something I need to attend?” she asked.

“No, not today. There’s one tomorrow morning that you should be at, however. Brennan can tell you what’s on your calendar,” he said. For a moment, both of them stood there, she looking at him, trying to figure Bran out and he trying to look anywhere but at her and failing spectacularly.

"Welcome to the Viscount's office," Bran said, looking away from her. She had the feeling he was just as thrown off by their collision as she was, but determined not to show it. "We're really pleased that you've joined us. Your work is impressive, to say the least. Let me know if you need anything."

She thanked him again and he moved quickly out of her office. Nori closed the door quietly behind him. Bran seemed to be eager to leave her presence, but after the confusing encounter they’d just had, she didn’t blame him.

“Maker’s balls,” she said, cursing into the empty office.

#

What in the Void was the matter with him? Bran wasn’t a man given to feverish, heroic actions, but he’d just been holding the newest member of the Senior Staff to the Viscount in his arms. Worse, Bran hadn’t minded not one bit. Maker, he was losing his mind, and the day was only half over.

Norina Hawke was partially his hire. He’d wanted to bring her on board years ago, but there hadn’t been an opening. Emeric’s unfortunate illness and subsequent decision to vacate his spot made the opportunity available, and Bran had used every ounce of his power to get her to Kirkwall. He didn’t know her, but that wasn’t necessary - she was a Hawke. Her name was enough, and her own power and acumen was a bonus.

But then she’d actually shown up and he’d burst into her office like an uncouth heathen, startling her out of her bird like balance. Then he’d collided with her. He ran his hands over his face just thinking about the mishap. Not his finest hour. That door stuck and he knew it from when it was Varric’s office, but he’d forgotten in his haste to greet her.

Bran recalled meeting Norina before, but he hadn't thought much about her outside of her work and name. If he was asked, he might have admitted that she was young and pretty, but he didn’t and hadn’t been able to give an accurate description her until now. Pretty didn't begin to describe her -- she was breathtaking. Tall and shapely, the first thing he noticed about her was the long, dark tresses hanging down her back. He wanted to put his hands in her hair, as if they were something more than colleagues, but that urge had been so foreign and dangerous, Bran hadn’t recognized it for what it was at the time.

When he released her he saw that she was clad in the standard all-black business suit, but there was something about tailoring that set off all of her features instead of masking them. Her smile had been a little sheepish but genuine after he’d let her go. She had full lips and large brown eyes contrasting with a rather small nose. It was impish and rounded, giving her an air of mischief that was reinforced by her standing in front of him barefoot wearing that wide smile.

Not how he’d wanted to officially greet her, but thinking about it summoned an unconscious smile to Bran’s normally sour countenance.

“You’re smiling,” Ruvena told him as he walked past her desk. He felt his face immediately form into a scowl, but it wasn’t a truly anger that changed his expression - Bran just hated to be teased.

“Rue, you’re fired,” Bran said, not even bothering to look over his shoulder. He heard her laughing as he closed his office door.

His Excellency the Viscount was standing over Bran’s desk, rifling through the papers. Bran didn’t sigh, but only because it was the Viscount. He was scheduled to meet with him in an hour, so Bran wondered what this was about. Marlowe never came to him without a reason.

“Marlowe, this is my office. I had them make you a little sign for yours. Has your name on it and everything,” Bran said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Where were you? I was on a call and my feet were getting cold, I could have used some of that hot air you spew,” Viscount Dumar shot back at him. “Actually, i was just looking for that chart from this morning’s meeting. Ruvena didn’t have a copy.”

Bran looked down at his hand. The paper he’d been holding when he caught Norina, the one that he bunched in his fist was the one the Viscount was looking for. He couldn’t hand it over to him in that state.

“Ruvena can make you a fresh copy. This got somewhat mangled when I had to keep Norina Hawke from falling,” Bran said.

The Viscount fixed Bran with a withering stare, the kind he normally reserved for negotiations of all sorts. Bran wasn’t quailed by it, but hasted to explain.

“I startled her and she was standing on one foot. There was something in her shoe or some problem like that. She started to fall, I helped her. Nothing at all,” Bran said.

Dumar made a noise that Bran decided was dismissive, but he couldn’t tell. Marlowe walked away from Bran’s desk, towards him and door. “Don’t start fondling the employees, Bran. If I hear that’s why Emeric left, I’ll have to double his retirement compensation.”

“I’ll get you that chart,” Bran responded, ignoring the Viscount’s comment. It made Bran flush hot to think of the way she’d felt up against him.

“Thank you. Have a copy made for Sebastian as well.”

“Of course, Your Excellency,” Bran said, standing aside to let Dumar out of his office.

After he gave the paper to Ruvena to smooth out and photocopy for the Viscount and Sebastian, Bran went back to his office. The clock on the wall said it was almost 2pm, and he had a call at the top of the hour. His large hands palmed his face again, unable to shake the strange feeling that had plagued him since he’d seen Norina. Fuck, he thought, just _fuck_. He could still smell her perfume.


	5. A Long Week

First weeks at new jobs never failed to be some of the most tiring experiences Nori could think of, yet she enjoyed it. Working in the Viscount's office was vastly different and happened at a much faster pace than her work with the Assembly. Mentions of her father came up only every other day versus the every hour she'd heard about him while working for Assemblyman Johnston in Tantervale. 

Her week mostly consisted of learning more about local laws instead of trying to loop and in and out and around the loose collection of Free Marches laws. The Free Marches were still a confederation at heart and the local laws of each city-state held the power. That didn’t mean the Assembly didn’t try to tip the balance of power in their direction, however. They argued that a more united Free Marches made it strong and the city-states (especially Starkhaven) were in favor of tradition and independence.

The trouble was that the Free Marches and the states that made them up battled for power all the time, each one making their own laws and policies, bumping heads with each other in the process. That's where her work came in, deciphering the implications of the policies each side carelessly enacted without consulting the other in a bid for power, analyzing how a proposed policy, trade agreement or law would affect the parties involved and sometimes educating the public about such things. It was nearly the same thing she did for the Assembly, but instead of just for Johnston and his constituents, she now worked for all of Kirkwall. There were times when her job was more headache than challenge, but Nori found she didn't want to do anything else.

Near the end of her first week, she saw Bran on her way into work, coming out of an office on the first floor. They hadn’t really interacted after he’d kept her from falling, save for the few times they exchanged words in meetings. She felt his eyes on her as she entered the lobby making a cacophonous clacking against the stone floor in her high heels. His scrutiny made her stand a little straighter. When she looked over, he was watching her. Nori loved high heels, she was tall without them and the increased height made her feel powerful. Though her shoes were black, she'd paired them with ankle-length pants and a white blouse with a plain black blazer over it. 

She’d walked to work again, as was becoming her custom since she didn’t have her own car, but hadn’t been foolish enough to wear the heels the whole way. Those she’d put on sitting on a bench right outside the Keep. When she walked by Bran, he fell into step alongside her and they mounted the stairs together.

"Messere Chief of Staff, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Nori asked breezily.

"How tall are you in those?" he asked her, as she clacked into her office, waving at Brennan as she passed by her assistant.

"Taller than you, but you knew that before you asked." She pointed out. Out of the corner of her eye she caught his answering smirk as she took off her coat and hung it up. "What can I do for you?" she asked.

"Nothing, I was just admiring your ability to walk on stilts," Bran said. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against her door. He didn’t come further in, but she got the feeling he was in no hurry to leave.

"Ha ha," Nori said matching Bran's dry tone with her sarcastic faux laughter. They were both grinning at each other now from across her small office, Nori felt the urge to tweak hm, just a bit, so she went on. "You have no idea what heels do for muscle tone. Oh, but that’s the pity of being a man! You really should try it sometime Bran, I bet you'd look just fetching in a pair of four inch black pumps." 

As she spoke, she’d pushed forward a folder that she retrieved from her the top of her bookcase. It held an analysis she'd created just before leaving the day before as well as a summary of what direction she'd given the three people who worked under her so far. She was going to email it to him and Sebastian that morning, but had printed a copy out for her own records. It sat on the end of the desk like an offering. Bran stepped into her office to retrieve it, then retreated to the doorway as he looked inside the folder. She watched his hands as he took it off her desk and opened it; Bran had long, lean fingers that brought to mind the phrase ‘scholar’s hands’ but she had no idea what would marked them as such. To banish the thought, she turned away, pushing her glasses up as she did.

"What's this?" he asked. He wasn’t confused, or even truly inquisitive about the work in the folder, but Nori knew that he understood what he was reading. Bran just wanted her to confirm what he already knew it was. 

"That’s what you really came in here for -- to see what I was working on -- even if you didn’t want to admit you’re checking up on me. Everything’s going well. If that's all, I really must get started today. Unlike you, I don't get paid to be pretty." A playful lilt softened her admonishment to him as she pursed her lips to hide her smile.

Bran looked surprised but recovered quickly, skimming the first page of the sheaf in the folder before looking back up at her. She'd already moved on, turning on her computer and getting ready for the day.

"Norina?" Bran asked, suddenly aware of something as he walked away.

"Nori."

"I'm sorry?" he asked. For the first time she read confusion on his face, and it almost made Nori laugh.

"My name. Only my mother calls me Norina."

"Oh, right. Nori. This looks good," he said holding up the manila folder. "I have some work I've been sitting on until we had a policy expert. Despite what Sebastian thinks, he's no such thing. Can I hand it off to you?"

"Certainly."

“You didn’t wear glasses before,” he said, surprising her. His gaze was sharp and she felt herself start to blush. It was a question, even if he’d made it a statement. She shook her head at him.

“Um, no. I couldn’t get my contacts in this morning. I think my apartment is too dry,” she said. Self-consciously, Nori reached up to push her cat eye tortoiseshell glasses back up, but motion was empty, they were as far as they could comfortably go. 

“Are you all unpacked?” Bran asked.

“Not really,” she said, and shrugged. “I need to buy new furniture.”

“It takes time,” he said, but didn’t offer any advice. For that she was glad, since her mother had been calling and emailing her helpful household tips ever since she’d moved in. They were starting to sound vaguely threatening. Bran held up the folder with her week of work in it. “Thank you. Make sure you give the same thing to Sebastian.”

She nodded and he left her doorway, but she saw him turn to look at her once more. What wasn’t he saying? Nori didn’t have time to wonder about it too much, her desk phone rang as Bran left her line of sight and she was swept up in a conversation with one of her new subordinates.

#

Bran, Lady Elegant and Sebastian were sitting his office, talking about Nori. Sebastian wanted Elegant to make a big announcement for Nori’s hire and talk about her work. Bran wasn’t against a press release, but he didn’t want a press conference. Calling the reporters in would say that they had news about her to announce, which they didn’t. It would make a spectacle of her.

“We didn’t have a press conference when you joined the staff,” Bran pointed out to Sebastian.

“That’s true, but perhaps we should have. It might have interested people.”

Elegant shook her head. “I can do a release, which is standard for significant additions to the staff. I don’t think we should consider much more. Hawke’s not, well she’s not given to a big fuss. It might put her off the job.”

Sebastian smoothed out his suit, and the motion irked Bran for some reason. He and Sebastian got along on for the sake of their team, but neither of them would call the other friend. Then again, Bran didn’t have many friends at all, and his closest was the Viscount himself. Coming up in the ranks hadn’t been an easy feat and at the time it had been more important to gather those loyal to him and his interests than friends.

“I suppose we could ask her, but honestly I think this does call for some kind of announcement. We should have done it before she arrived, but I thought that including her in the press conference might put her knowledge and abilities on display,” Sebastian said. It was a good point, no matter how much Bran disliked the idea.

“You said you knew her,” Bran said to Elegant. “How do you think she’ll react if you suggest a press conference?”

“We knew each other when we were younger,” Elegant clarified, but didn’t elaborate. “And I’m pretty sure she’ll tell me to screw myself if I suggest a press conference. It would seem like grandstanding to her.”

“It  _ is _ grandstanding, but that’s what we want,” Sebastian said. “But not if it’s going to upset her.”

Bran stood up. He had another meeting in a few minutes and this had gone on long enough. “Just do the press release. We don’t need her walking out. Elegant, go down there and be sure to say hello, since you were out earlier this week. Mention the possibility of press conference for her and see how it goes over. If she’s as opposed as you think she’ll be, we can drop the idea. It was a good one, however,” Bran said, offering the last bit as consolation to Sebastian. Sebastian seemed to want Nori to be more prominently out front, but Bran wasn’t entirely sure why. A famous lineage only goes so far, especially when it went back just a single generation.

“As you say, messere,” Elegant said, standing up. Her blonde curls bounced as she did, and she was the prim picture of girlishness she liked to project. Bran knew her for what she was, a sharp mind and a perfect memory, she was like tangling with a pit of vipers for those that crossed her. Otherwise she was very respectable, pleasant and hardworking.

“Bran,” Sebastian said, nodding as at him before departing. Elegant lingered.

“How’s your son doing?” Bran asked. It was why she’d been out during the earlier part of the week. Her three year old had been ill.

“Better now, his breathing is back under control. Thank you for coming to the hospital on Sunday night. He was glad to get the presents you brought,” Elegant said, smiling at him.

“Think nothing of it. Jason was hardly ever sick, but when he was we were both down for a week. Is your husband with him now?”

“My mom.” Elegant turned and looked away from him, biting her lower lip as she thought. “She’s a nurse, but I hate to keep her from work this long. I’m thinking of hiring someone.” Bran wasn’t sure what to contribute, so didn’t speak.

“Did you have trouble finding someone for your son? You mentioned you had a live-in nanny when he was growing up.”

Bran thought back, but it was a decade ago. That time, the first two years after his divorce, had been fraught with pain. His divorce wasn’t due to a mutual desire to end a marriage. Jason had only been twelve when it happened, but he and his former wife had been on the rocks for at least two years before.

“I don’t remember it being hard to find someone Jason liked, but rather that I also liked. Jason is much more personable than I,” Bran told her. Elegant laughed. It was unexpectedly loud, bouncing around the room and off the walls. The sound of it cheered Bran, lifting the painful yoke of memory off of him.

“Yeah, Jason is a little easier on people than you are. But honestly, Bran, I respect your opinion like no one else’s in this office. And that’s not just idle flattery,” she said to him.

“Do what you have to for your son. You don’t have to worry about your job. Come see me if expenses get to be unbearable,” he said.

Elegant waved her hand at him. “Hopefully they won’t be. Edmund’s family will have to help.”

She left his office then, and Bran went back to sit behind his desk to gather himself for the next meeting. Elegant was still preoccupied, but he was glad she’d come back to work. He’d never asked her just how she knew Nori, but Bran got the impression that they weren’t always friends. Friendly, perhaps, but not always friends. Just as he started to speculate why, Ruvena came in the room and handed him a folder full of documents for his next meeting.

#

“I was wondering why I hadn’t seen you,” Nori said, as Lady Elegant sat down in a guest chair in her office. “How have you been?”

“My boy got sick last week. Turns out he’s allergic to bee stings and just about everything else,” Elegant said.

Nori looked at Elegant, then smiled. It was the end of the day, but they were just getting a chance to talk to each other. 

“I’m sorry to hear about your son. He’s better now?”

“Yes, thank you. How’s it been around here? Varric said you were getting on well this morning when I saw him.”

“It’s been a first week,” she said, sighing. “There’s so much to do here, and at home. I’ve been getting my underwear out of a suitcase on the floor because I don’t have enough furniture.Here I’m still  trying to figure out what’s been done since Emeric was in the hospital and which of his projects have been unattended. The staff’s just happy to have direction again,” Nori said.

“Sebastian wanted us to do a press conference about adding you to the staff,” Elegant informed her, and Nori made a face. It looked like she’d just smelled dog shit after she’d stepped in it.

“I don’t think so,” Nori started to object, but Elegant laughed.

“Don’t worry so much, Hawke. Bran and I figured you wouldn’t be happy about it, and there are no plans to force you. I’ll do a standard press release tomorrow at the end of the week. Got any weekend plans?”

“Friday night? No, nothing. Alcohol and takeout probably.”

Lady Elegant sighed. “I do miss being single when you put it like that. I wish there were less for me to do on the weekends.”

Nori’s phone rang, but it was her own phone ringing in the deep recesses of her purse. She hadn’t taken it out after leaving for lunch. Elegant stood up anyway, though Nori made no move to answer it.

“I’ll get going. Brennan says you’re wiping the floor with them. Keep it up, Hawke. You can’t look too good in the eyes of the Viscount,” Elegant advised.

“I intend to,” Nori said. “Thanks for not holding a press conference for me. That would have been awkward.”

Elegant left and Nori took out her phone to listen to her message. It was her sister Bethany, begging off of furniture shopping on Saturday to spend time with her new boyfriend. He was a student with limited free time, so Nori didn’t hold it against him too much. Truthfully, she was glad. She could use Saturday to rest more, maybe unpack the last of the boxes and get out her video games. The week had been longer and harder than she’d anticipated.

That night after she’d walked home, Nori almost wished she were back at office. At least there she knew what to do with herself. Here, in this new apartment that didn’t really feel like it was her home, all she could do was give into her exhaustion with no one to talk to. It was just her alone in her semi-unpacked apartment. It felt oversized and cold with the large wall of windows she loved so much when she'd come to see the place. 

For the first time she wondered if the place was too big for just her. It was an impressive apartment, a loft at the top of a building but her meager belongings looked tiny in the cavernous space, even with the boxes piled up and half full. She changed into sweatpants and t-shirt and sat in the middle of her messy bed, getting her clothes together to take to the dry cleaner the next morning on her way to work. She didn't even have any beer to drink as she unpacked.

Not for the first time, Nori missed Anders. Her ex would likely have been as tired as she was at the moment, but at least he was someone she knew, his warm body curling into hers as they fell asleep together. She knew he had a new partner, she'd seen them together before she'd left Tantervale. They'd been walking down the street together, holding hands when she'd been standing in line to get her lunch from a truck selling hot dogs. She'd gone back to work with no lunch that day, her appetite fleeing at the sight of them. As she recalled the memory, she found that it didn't hurt as much now.

Throwing on a hoodie, she decided to brave the outdoors and get some sort of alcohol to accompany her takeout dinner. It didn’t matter what she told Elegant, she was enacting the plan of alcohol and video games a little early to get her mind off work. Kirkwall had been her home but it no longer felt like one to her. It was up to her to change that, and Nori decided that she couldn't do it if she didn't take a break tonight. Starting a new job and moving certainly counted as stressful, she thought as she crossed the parking lot. The wind whipped across her face while she walked, and she wondered why she had come back to Kirkwall at all. It had seemed like the right idea at the time, moving closer to her family, getting away from Tantervale, starting a more lucrative job -- those all sounded like good reasons, but she was still unsure.

Bran's car was stopped at a light and he briefly looked out the window, seeing a slovenly looking young woman walking with the brown paper bags that signified the purchase of alcohol. He turned away; he didn't understand the desire to be seen in public wearing velour, period. His car started going again and he forgot the young woman as quickly as he'd seen her, planning on settling into his favorite corner at a restaurant near his house and drinking a new red wine with his dinner. He hated going home to an empty house; even ten years after getting divorced he still wasn't used to it.  
  
A decision had been reached when she'd been out buying her booze. Nori was going to get drunk and play video games all night long, letting her unpacking be damned for a night. It would cheer her up and motivate her to actually finish up on the weekend and go order her furniture. Instead of her beers, she cracked open a new bottle of vodka and the accompanying cranberry juice, opting for a mixed drink instead and settled in with her controller and headset, ready to lead an army.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the rewriting of this chapter, I realized I'd left out an important position - the press secretary. So I drafted Lady Elegant into the role, because I didn't want to rewrite the whole of the story to recast one of the female characters in the role. Also, I have a deep liking for Lady Elegant, however brief her in game appearances are. As I rework more of the older chapters, I'll weave more appearances of her in, but as it is right now she's just in the revised sections.


	6. Pretty Face

The first few weeks were exhausting, but Nori found that she loved working for Viscount Dumar. He had a sense of humor she hadn’t expected, but he was very traditional and dedicated to Kirkwall. His love for the city-state was only surpassed by his obvious affection for his only son, Seamus. Seamus was often around the Keep, going in and out of his father’s office, and on more than a few occasions, she saw him talking to Bran.

Their work was lively and ever-changing, and the pace of it was everything she’d hoped for after leaving the sedate Assembly. Once she started to feel like part of the team, the days passed in a rush of work, meetings, interrupted phone calls and more meetings. Nori wouldn’t have been able to keep track of it all without Brennan, whom she quickly learned to reply upon. For her part, Brennan marveled at her pace, she was running circles around the other people in the office, keeping her busy as well. Her assistant said so nearly every day, both flattering and embarrassing her.

Nori had a wealth of knowledge in her mind that allowed her to suss out nuances that could change definitions and she pounced on them, making them work in her favor. Brennan was pleased that she wasn't a doormat when she felt something could be changed or improved. It wasn't uncommon for her to hear Nori rejecting ideas or arguing about rewriting items until there was no inherent bias in them. For as tough as she was, she was fair with her staff and praised their work when it deserved it, and didn’t coddle them when it could be improved. The staff rallied behind her leadership and became a cohesive unit with a more formal structure than they'd had under their previous supervisor.

It was a Wednesday morning, one that made her sure that summer was just around the corner. The days were growing warm and long, where it had been dark and prone to showers when she started. This morning it had been positively balmy as she walked to work. As soon as she’d come into her office, Sebastian had sauntered in. As much as she appreciated his genius and ability to do his job, she found his managerial style frustrating. Nori tacked a smile to her face as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk and settled in, looking at her over steepled fingers.

"How's your team doing today, Nori?" Sebastian asked.

He’d taken to coming to her office every other day, asking her basically the same question in a number of ways. Maker help her, she even found his suits annoying. Today he was wearing an all-white ensemble with a pink tie. He looked like a candy striper. She wondered if he bothered everyone this much, or if it she was just lucky. Nori took a breath and tried to set her annoyance aside. He was her supervisor, just as she was to her team. By looking in on her every few days, he was just doing his job -- checking in. She had to remember that.

"Everything’s just fine, thanks,” she said. She didn’t want to encourage him to get cozy, but had no wish to be rude. Any real updates she had would either come over email or in a meeting.

“You’ve been keeping busy since you arrived. Hit the ground running and all of that. Are you managing your team without too much trouble?” he asked. Oh no, this was going to be a long visit. He obviously wasn’t getting her mental messages to go back to his own office. She tried not to grimace.

“I think so. We have meetings weekly and I’ve been checking in with them. Letting them get on with their assignments without micromanaging their time seems to work best. I have no complaints,” Nori said, hoping he’d catch her hint. Sebastian smiled at her as if he did, but didn’t get up, blast him.

“Good, good, that’s what I like to hear. And are you all unpacked and settled into your new apartment now?” Sebastian asked.

“It’s coming along. Still decorating, but they say that good design is always evolving,” Nori said, giving him the same line she gave the receptionist at the dentist she’d talked to about it.

Sebastian laughed, and the sound of it did little to soften Nori, who just wanted him gone from office. She sighed, softly, careful not to let her exasperation bleed through. There was nothing wrong with him, not really, but he was always rubbing her the wrong way. Except when they were really working, then he was a joy to be around. Sebastian had a quick mind that retained all kinds of information, and knew how to use it. He truly was good at his job, except when it came to managing her. She was just about to try to find a way to dismiss him from her office, a gentle reminder about a meeting or a call she would need to read up for, but he started talking again.

"You know, if you need anything don't hesitate to ask. I've nothing but the utmost respect for what you've been doing but you don't have to impress us."

"What does that mean?" Her voice was sharper than she intended.

Sebastian registered her rebuke, but didn’t immediately respond. Distress flickered on his face for the briefest of moments before he looked away. He let the moment spool out as he brushed off his suit jacket and when he spoke again, it was in a deliberately even tone.

"I’ve no wish to offend you, Lady Hawke. You've been doing some amazing work, but I'm a bit concerned you're going to burn out at this rate."

"Sebastian, I haven't even started to ramp up yet. Keep up or get to the side." Nori was defensive, but not entirely sure why. "I have to go see Bran."

She didn't but Bran was the only person she could think of that was in this early. Varric wouldn’t stroll in for about another half hour, and had to get out of her office. Nori stalked out of her own office, leaving him frowning at her back.

"Can I go in?" Nori asked Ruvena, her tone a little shorter than she’d intended. “Sorry, I’m just annoyed.”

Ruvena gave her a sympathetic smile as she looked down at her desk. Her breakfast was sitting next to her computer, chocolate milk and an energy bar. Tomorrow, if she remembered, Nori would bring her a chocolate milk to make up for being snappish.

"Yeah, it looks like he's off the phone now," she said. Nori nodded and went into the office, closing the door behind her.

"Nori, what do you need?" Bran asked her. He was surprised to see her, she could tell, but there was something more underneath it. Nori wasn’t her usual observant self or she might have registered his regard as more than just curiosity.

"To get away from Sebastian. He just accused me of showing off with all the work I have been doing." She was churlish, but Bran gave a short laugh. Nori looked up, prepared to glare at him, but his face made her smile at the last moment. Some of the indignant heat vaporized around her as she took in his amusement.

"What did you say?" Bran asked. He was watching her pace, but didn’t seem very surprised that Sebastian upset her.

"I told him to keep up or get to the side," she growled.

Bran laughed again, a deep, resonant chuckle that sounded almost out of place in his office. It drew her out of the remaining depths of her anger. His laugh was low and husky and it startled her with the its sensuousness. Nori smiled back, unable to not be pulled in by his laughter. His amused, attractive face that somehow always seemed to convey a look of cynicism, even when he was laughing. She started to feel the creep of sheepishness washing over her, aware that she’d overreacted to Sebastian.

“I’m not making an official complaint or anything, I just, ugh, needed to get away from him today. We’re still learning how to work together,” she said, trying to clarify.

"I sense this isn't the first time he's annoyed you recently?"

"He's got these awful stories that I like to call 'Growing up Vael' about how beneficial his family name has been over the course of his life. I think he's suggesting in a roundabout way how beneficial it would be for any of my progeny to also grow up as a Vael." Whatever expression was on her face made Bran laugh again, but this time it didn’t last as long.

"I know the stories of which you speak, and how frustrating it can be to talk to him. He’s got an uncanny ability to argue in circles, which is both deeply frustrating and highly admirable in our line of work.” Bran sighed. “Would you like me to have a word with him? Unofficially, of course."

"No, I'm just frustrated. Maybe if we don’t find a way to work together without annoying the crap out of each other, but I think it’s a little early for arbitration. Thank you for not laughing me out on my ass though." She'd simply needed to blow off steam before things got out of hand. Nori usually moved on quickly, not letting resentments build. It had gotten the better of her this once.

"You're welcome. Wait. Your hair has changed." He was giving her a thoughtful look, frowning as he thought. “I’m sure it’s different,” he said, more to himself than to her.

"Um, yes. I had it colored. I started going grey a while back. A few years ago I had a new boyfriend point it out to me and I like to keep it up, just in case I let anyone get that close again."

It was a joke, but Bran’s frown deepened as she said it. She thought about saying something else but didn’t, not wanting to stick her foot further in her mouth. Definitely needed to remember that Bran wasn’t her friend, no matter how much she liked hearing that laugh of his.

"It looks nice," he said, looking back at his computer. Whatever levity they’d shared was over, and Nori couldn’t help feeling a little deflated.

"Thanks!" she said, forcing cheerfulness into her voice. He didn’t look up at her again, and she made her way back to her own office.

How had she fucked up with both him and Sebastian in the course of a half hour? If she was excelling with her work here, then she was failing at dealing with the people. Maker, she could feel the beginnings of a headache behind her eyes. It was going to be one of those days, and it had already started.

#

Bran watched Nori leave his office. He was a stupid, stupid man. _“Your hair has changed.”_ Maker, could he think of nothing better to say? He knew better than to remark on the appearance of a subordinate, especially a beautiful woman that just been complaining about undue interest.

He was sure that Sebastian meant no harm with his ham-fisted check-ins and stories. There was no malice in him, though there might have been interest in Nori. She was a remarkable woman, but she was Sebastian’s direct report. To pursue her would put his position in jeopardy.

That was something Bran should consider, because she wasn’t his direct report, but a relationship wouldn’t be professional. It would be tolerated, he supposed. Elegant had met her husband when they’d both worked at the Keep, but he had been on in a temporary advisory capacity. Could he and Nori be? Bran shook himself from the thought before it formed completely. There was an attraction, though it felt one-sided to him. Him gazing in admiration at her backside as she flounced out of his office this morning didn’t constitute enough to put his whole career on the line.

Bran also had to admit that he liked the way she looked in those high heels she professed to love, and the way she’d smiled at him when she’d made him laugh. But those things weren’t anything at all. He just liked her, however foolish the attraction. The phone on his desk buzzed, startling Bran from his thoughts.

“You have a phone call from Duke Tythas Pentaghast. Are you available?” Ruvena asked.

“Did he say what it concerned?” Bran was always wary of unscheduled phone calls. They inevitably led to more work.

“No, just that he needed to talk to you.”

Bran sighed. “Put him through,” he said. He sat back in his chair and greeted the duke with false enthusiasm. He hoped this was nothing that would cut into his day.

#

That afternoon Bran was slumped down in his chair, trying to ignore the shouting match that was developing in his office between Varric and Sebastian. Varric got along with everyone fairly well, but Sebastian wanted to change some wording in one of his speeches. His suggestion wasn't taken well by the writer. This day had already gifted him with a headache, and was getting worse as the tension rose around him. Bran rubbed at his temples absently, in a vain attempt to relieve some of the pain.

"All I'm saying is that if we make the wording more vague, then it doesn't seem like a condemnation." Sebastian was trying to smooth over his point, sitting in front of Varric.

"If we don't support a position in a position speech Sebastian, it sends the wrong message. This is a condemnation of the violations of some article in the accord they signed. They violated it so we get to call them out on it."

"But do we really want to do that? Are we sure it's a violation?" Sebastian asked, looking around at Bran. Bran was low in his chair, face impassive as he watched the two men argue.

"Article eighteen, section five, subsection B." Bran replied, naming the place in the Antivan Accord on Trade. It was in fact a violation of the accord, but no one was listening to him.

"I didn't just write it, we went through drafts for weeks and Hawke looked over the language in the accord. Don't start making changes now Sebastian," Varric stated flatly. Varric didn’t get angry, not like he and Sebastian did, filled with cold resentment and rage. Varric was all sound -- if he was pissed off, people knew it. The good thing about Varric was that he didn’t hold grudges, at least not with other people.

"I'd like to hear it from Norina whether this is really a violation or not." Sebastian said, sitting back in his chair as if he'd made an excellent point. Varric turned and gave Bran a sour look, but said nothing. Bran picked up his phone, summoning Nori to his office.

"Hawke," Varric said as soon she appeared in the doorway. "The speech I wrote a few weeks ago about the Antivan Trade Accord." Nori narrowed her eyes as she thought back. then nodded, waiting for Varric to go on. "Was there a violation?"

"Yes. I think it was something to do with the part about tariffs, right? That would be article eighteen, section five, subsection B, for tariff regulations and violations," Nori answered swiftly. Varric gave Sebastian a withering look but Sebastian just looked back at him calmly over his steepled fingers.

"Thank you, Norina." Sebastian said. "That will be all."

"Actually it isn't." Bran cut in smoothly. He hated that Sebastian thought he could dismiss people from his office.

"There's a women's magazine that wants to do staff profiles on us, but more specifically on Nori." Bran announced.

"Why me?" she asked, looking a little shocked. “Why not Elegant?”

"Well they didn't name you, but since no one wanted to do a staff profile on us while Emeric held your position, it's a safe bet they want to take pictures of you."

"No," Nori answered.

"Perhaps you should consider it Norina," Sebastian said, musing more to himself than to her. "It could be a good idea for you."

“What does Elegant think?” she asked.

“She doesn’t know,” Sebastian admitted. “I hadn’t gotten around to asking her yet.”

“No. We went through this when I first got here. No press parties or special articles or conferences or whatever. I just want to do my job.” Sebastian made to argue with her again, but she steamrolled right over him. Now, Bran could see it. There was a conflict of personality between the two of them, but only because of their pasts. Sebastian was a Vael, he liked his family name and used it and she worked hard to get out of the shadow of her father.

"If you think it's such a good idea, then you take off your shirt and lie across your desk while they take pictures. I'm not going to do it. They're going to want to turn me into some kind of model and take photos of me looking away from the camera in a ball gown while I'm standing in front of the Viscount's seal. I'm not some pretty face, I'm an expert in policy and law. I go on the news because it's required of my job, but I won't do this."

Bran saw the color rising in Nori's face and her eyes were dark and insolent. She was strongly opposed to this idea in particular, and he wondered why. This was a much more vehement reaction than the one she’d had when they suggested the press conference.

"Sebastian, Varric, that's all," Bran said, dismissing the two of them. Let them bicker in Varric’s office, away from his headache and curiosity.

Nori was thunderously angry, if her expression was anything to go by. He doubted she’d even registered that Sebastian and Varric were gone. Bran came out from behind his desk and sat slightly on the edge, waiting for Nori to acknowledge him. When she finally looked up, he spoke.

"What was that about?" he asked quietly.

"No one ever asked my father to model for a fashion piece and I'm not about to start. I'm sorry but it's a crap idea, those stories put as little about my work in as they can and then tell people what I'm wearing."

"It could reach out to some young women."

"I speak at events, educational, social and political. I mentored girls in Cumberland and Tantervale. I've written books and articles, but somehow pictures of me posing in a designer gown will reach women that weren't likely to listen to me before? That's bullshit and you know it."

"Okay," Bran said, letting it drop.

She had a good point, and he wasn’t going to try convince her if she already felt so strongly about it. He could respect the idea of wanting to remain professional, though the way she spoke of it was a foreign concept to him. He went back behind his desk and sat down to resume his work again.

"That's it?" she asked. Her face was still angry, hands balled into fists. She’d been expecting more of a fight.

"That's it. Those are perfectly valid reasons; I just wanted to know why you didn't want to do it." He went back to his email and she rose from her chair finally.

"You are pretty," The words were unbidden, rushing out before he could hold them in. He didn’t look up at her, because she was still glowering with those frighteningly beautiful dark eyes, but he couldn’t say nothing.

"Excuse me?" It was said without hostility. She gave him a bemused look that he only glanced up at before looking back at his computer screen. His email swam by, incomprehensible.

"You said before, 'I'm not a pretty face'. But you are, you're beautiful. No one's ever going to come in here and take pictures of me and the Viscount in ball gowns. As long as you're here, people will prefer to see you instead of me or Varric and it's because you're young and pretty, and deserve to be celebrated," Bran said, still not looking at Nori.

"As long as they realize that I have a brain too, I might be alright with that."

"Well, we know it. You don't have to earn our respect, you've already got it." Bran looked right at her as he said it, abandoning his pretense of work.

"Thank you, just, thanks. Is that all?" Nori asked. There was no sign of what she was thinking on her face, but her voice had gone breathy. It reminded him of when he’d caught her in his arms on her first day, with that same charged atmosphere and both of them unsure of what to say.

"That's all." Bran said quietly, turning back to his computer. Nori finally left his office at the dismissal and Bran let out a long breath, unaware that he'd been holding it in.


	7. The Stannard Problem

She was stupid, wasn’t she? Nori had to be, because she’d been spending time thinking about Bran. Bran, of all people, just because he’d called her pretty. Not just pretty, beautiful, and he’d said it so casually too, like he’d been talking about the weather. It left her speechless in his office, hot and unsure what to do about it. Now she couldn’t stop thinking about it, how he said it, and why. Did he like her? He was single and attractive, but she’d heard stories. He wasn’t a man with a romantic soul, but he was supposed to be good in bed. That personality, she supposed, because his work took an exacting mind those same traits must get applied elsewhere.

Nori shivered and tried to stop her mind from going down that road once again. This was a problem, not just because he was Sebastian’s supervisor -- not even hers, but one step above hers -- but also because they were working together more now. She saw him all the time, had to go into his office, the same place where he’d declared her beautiful. How she’d managed to not start giggling like a schoolgirl with a crush, which was basically was what she was, was beyond her. He had a son two years younger than her brother and sister. Bran was too old for her.

But the more they worked together, the more she liked him. Her attraction to him grew the more she saw him in action. Hands down, Bran was the most intelligent person she’d ever worked with. His grasp of law was phenomenal, but there was something else about him. He didn’t want to outshine or take the spotlight. He was glad to help his team, for her to be more visible, for Elegant to be front in center in delivering the news. That was rare in people, let alone ones with the kind of power Bran held.

She saw him standing on the upper levels of the Keep as she came in that morning, in his usual place. He liked to look over the lobby, see who was coming in and out at the beginning of the day. As she walked, she got the feeling he was watching her, but that thought was dismissed before it could make her look over her shoulder to check. Nori had just settled in, getting her morning tea from Brennan and talking about nothing in particular when he walked by.

"Brennan, Nori." Bran said as he walked by Brennan's desk. 

“Messere,” Brennan said, as Nori’s, “Good morning,” overlapped.

Nori had been talking to Brennan about the new boots she was wearing, ones she’d bought on a whim the weekend before. Bran didn’t stop to talk, so she didn’t halt her story.

"So I ran back in the store because it started pouring as soon as I got the damn boots."

"Of course, that's how it always goes. I bought the cutest dress there once on sale, and of course it was a summer dress the year the snow came early. By the time I got to wear it, I had almost forgotten what sunshine was like," Brennan commiserated.

She saw Bran turn, ever so slightly as Brennan talked on, and look at her. Specifically, he looked at her boots and Nori, watching him, met his glance and blushed. Maker, he’d been listening to them prattle on about nothing. He must have thought she didn’t have any work to do. Nori took a sip of her coffee just to have something to do. Bran moved on, making his way to his office and out of the warrens of cubes where she’d been standing with Brennan.

"Anyway I sprayed them with the water repellent when I got home, so I think they're fine now," Nori said absently.

It wasn’t Bran that caught her attention, but the television screen that was permanently on in the assistant cubes. Nori motioned for quiet and turned up the volume. Every room in the Keep had a television so they could constantly monitor the new channels and the special channel dedicated to the floor of the Assembly. They had a local government channel, but that was used to roll video most of the time, replaying speeches and ceremonies that happened in Kirkwall, not for live events. There was another channel for the boring live stuff.

Meredith Stannard, Assemblywoman from Kirkwall was on the screen in the middle of a practiced speech. Meredith was a bulldozer of a politician, a bit conservative for Nori's tastes, but she liked the woman. Malcolm Hawke had worked with her briefly before his death, once telling Nori that she was ‘too loud to ignore and too ignorant for her loudness to do her credit’, but Nori respected that she went with her heart when voting. Unfortunately, she was an elected official who was bound to serve her constituents and not just her own beliefs and recently Meredith's opponents had started gearing up to run against her.

What caught Nori’s attention was the screen had flashed Meredith’s name and title and then the words ‘A New Plan’. She certainly hadn’t heard of any new plans from Meredith’s office, and they were supposed to be informed first, before the Assembly. Nori watched in horror as she caught the tail end of Meredith’s speech.

"Standing here today, I promise you that my city of Kirkwall will be the first to adopt these new, aggressive reforms in environmental policy, because I will demand it of them. Corporations will be held accountable. Change is on the wind," Meredith finished with a flourish, banging a fist against her podium.

"Aw shit," Brennan muttered tensely. “By change in Kirkwall, she’s trying to tell us how to do our jobs.” There was a general mutter of agreement at Brennan’s assessment, but Nori was already on her way back towards the offices.

"Brennan get me a copy of that speech in its entirety as soon as you can, have her office send it over. I've got to go tell Sebastian about this."

Nori bustled through the office at a half-run, a sprinting gait not supported by her new boots, only slowing when she got to Sebastian's door. His assistant motioned at her to go in, even though he was on the phone. She wrote him a note on a piece of paper. It read: URGENT. He gave her a look and she nodded. His phone call ended moments later.

"We have a problem," Nori said ominously. Sebastian sat back in his leather chair and looked out at her over steepled fingers. Nori repeated what she’d just seen Meredith say on the floor of the Assembly.

"That is indeed a problem. Brennan was getting the transcript of the speech?" he asked, picking up his phone again.

"Yes, I'll have her bring it over to you as well."

"Norina, go and tell Bran. I would but I want to get on the phone and see who knew she was going to make those remarks."

"Nori. Right. Thank you Sebastian," Nori said before exiting the room.

Sebastian sighed behind her as she closed the door. Her last glimpse saw him picking up his phone again. She knew he’d sent her to Bran partially because he did want to make the phone calls and see who had kept them in the dark about this, but also because if he took the news to Bran he would just have to go and get her anyway. Meredith’s office, like all of the Assemblymembers, were supposed to work concurrently with them, not on their on. Policy took time to make, revise and implement and it didn’t get done by any one entity on its own.

When Nori went up there, he was in with the Viscount but she waited outside his office for him. She was too anxious to go back to her own desk and just wait around for Brennan to get her the copy of the speech so she could see what in the Maker's name Meredith was even promising they'd do. They had only trickles of information from Meredith since she’d joined the staff, but Nori figured that was because Meredith only liked to deal with the Viscount’s office when she had no other choice.

"Brennan says she finally got a hold of someone at Meredith Stannard's office and they'll be forwarding her the remarks. Also the Assembly should send over the copy they entered into the records. Brennan's going to try pulling some of the policy information for you, but unfortunately it seems like she referenced a few of them." Ruvena informed her as she waited.

"Thank you," Nori said, growing grumpier as she sat waiting. Two minutes later, Bran exited the Viscount's office and found Nori waiting outside his own.

"Nori? Come in," he said, putting his hand on her back as he opened his door for her. His touch sent tingles up her spine and Nori had to clear her throat to find her voice.

She told him about the speech she’d just seen. It had been live last night, but they hadn’t sent a member of the senior staff to watch the remarks. Bran drew in on himself as he grew angrier, his face going more and more impassive and harder to read as she explained what she’d seen.

"Damn it all. She doesn't get to make demands of this office," Bran said in a near whisper, pushing his hands over his face after Nori told him about Meredith's speech. "Will you go and look over whatever policy she was ranting about? Can you look into the feasibility of it, see if we can endorse any of it without losing face?"

"Of course," Nori replied.

This was the exact wrong time for her to notice how the light in his office brought out the subtle yellow tones in his hair, how there was no visible grey in the sleek auburn atop his head. He was grimacing, upset and he leaned over his desk, searching for something amongst the stacks of papers. Nori noticed how well his trousers fit him, how well-formed his backside was while he shuffled through the papers on his desk and in the stacks on the file cabinet behind it.

“Nori?” he called her back and she stood in front of his desk once more.

“Yes?”

“Good catch. I’ll be sure to mention it to the Viscount after we get finished dealing with Meredith. She’s notoriously lax in getting information over to us. If you hadn’t caught it, we might have been blindsided by a reporter.” He gave her a hard smile. “This isn’t how I wanted the day to start out, however, but it’s best to know now.”

“Thank you, messere,” she said.

"Don't call me that,” he snapped. Nori gave him a quizzical look in response. 

He turned and looked at her, and her face must have betrayed more than bewilderment. Bran closed the gap between them with a single step towards her. He was dangerously close to her, she could feel his body heat, could reach out for him with just the slightest movement. Somewhere inside her chest her breath caught, and his nearness was intoxicating. It was like her first day when he’d kept her from stumbling in her office. Nori wanted him to wrap his arms around her again.

"I'm just Bran to you. You and I...I'm just Bran," he said sighing. “You and I are,” he halted, and looked over at her. She thought she understood.

“Maybe it would be best if I did call you messere, at least for a while. I don’t want people to think I don’t respect you. But I understand what you mean, Bran.” She looked up at him, meeting his eyes. There was a tension locking both of them in place, just for span of a second. Nori’s hands were clasped in front of her, to keep her from touching him, putting a hand over his heart just to feel him beneath her.

“I should get started, messere. Thank you,” Nori said, stepping back from him. She couldn’t think straight in his presence, but was reluctant to leave it.

“Yes, of course. By all means,” he said, and went back to looking for whatever he’d been trying to find among the piles of papers.

"Ruvena!" He finally called out, frustrated that he couldn't find whatever he had turned away to look for. 

Nori turned to go back to her own office. Maybe in there she’d be able to breathe again. Ruvena entered just as she was exiting.

"Sebastian's waiting for you, messere," Ruvena said to Bran. Nori noticed he didn't correct her.

#

It was much later that day when they finally got around to having their weekly staff meeting. She was sitting next to Bran, doodling in her notebook and sipping from a mug of milky tea the color of tawny. That was another thing he'd noticed about her, how she rarely drank coffee, preferring tea instead. He couldn’t live without several cups of coffee a day, his caffeine addiction bordered on epic. Nori was drawing pictures as the others were giving reports in the meeting. This wasn’t just the senior staff, so the meetings did tend to drag on. He attended at Sebastian’s request, mostly to make himself visible. The words on her notepad read THIS MAKES ME WISH I WERE DRUNK with a tiny dancing elephant in a sombrero underneath it. Bran gave himself away by snorting softly in amusement.

Bran had to hastily manufacture a cough to cover his laughter but she looked over at him, a wicked smile playing on her lips. She looked back down at her notepad, poised to write something as she licked her lips thoughtfully. There was no amount of money he wouldn't have given at that moment to be able to hear her thoughts.

The next words she wrote were BRAN PAY ATTENTION and he kicked her under the table. It was more of a nudge really, he didn’t want to hurt her by shoving a wing tip in her shin. She trapped his foot with her ankle and they sat there, silent as their feet grappling under the table. Both of them were busy trying to seem completely innocent, making sure to look everywhere but at each other. Varric looked over at them and raised an eyebrow, interested in what was so funny. Nori looked away, trying to keep herself from laughing out loud as she covertly poked Bran in his side, hitting that soft spot just under his ribcage. He jumped, knocking his pen and notepad off the table. Sebastian gave them a dirty look from the other end of the table as he interrupted a fairly long-winded summary from someone in the press department.

"Are you quite alright Bran?" Sebastian asked, an eyebrow raised pointedly.

"Quite," Bran replied in a haughty tone. 

Nori let her hair fall in a dark curtain to one side, blocking her guilty grin from Sebastian's view. Bran could see her holding in laughter. He wanted to stick his tongue out at her, but that would surely be caught. Instead, he wrote on his notepad.

YOU’RE FIRED

She took a look at it and then wrote her own note. FINALLY. Bran couldn’t hold in his grin when he saw it, but wiped it off his face hastily when he saw Varric watching the two of them. He’d worked with Varric for years, and the man didn’t miss much. They should be more circumspect, but Bran wasn’t at all in the mood to care today. Let them see him flirt with the most beautiful woman in the office and be jealous. Actually, that thought appealed to him.

When Sebastian finally finished speaking, Bran wrapped up the meeting. He stood up and read from a note that he had clipped to his folder.

"Before you go, I have a note from the Viscount praising Varric for his excellent speech on tax reform, it was well-received by the audience and lauded as forward thinking by several advocate groups. None of it would be possible without the revision to the current policies and new plan made by Nori, one of several she's successfully undertaken in the last few months. The Viscount commends her work with his 'superlative praise'. That's all," he said dismissing them.

There was the awful scraping sound of many chairs getting pushed around all at once and general chatter. Bran waited for the bulk of the people to leave. Nori was still sitting down next to him, the remnants of a blush fading from her countenance. She’d blushed the same in his office every time he offered her a compliment. Not bashful, but definitely not used to hearing praise. 

Bran was happy to be the one to deliver it, one of the few wholly good perks of his job. The Viscount seldom came to their meetings, but often sent messages through Bran. It was the first time any of her work had earned a mention. Varric was the one that earned the most praise, but on occasion others did as well.

"Lady Hawke, welcome to the ranks of the 'people the Viscount knows by name'," Varric said as she got up. He got a smile and a thanks from her before he turned away to catch up with the crowd. Nori started gathering her belongings when Bran turned back to her.

"Nori,His Excellency sends his regards, he thinks you've been doing a superior job. The Viscount is very pleased with your efforts. Your staff seems to be flourishing under your leadership."

"Thank you, messere." She gave him a glance from beneath her lashes. Bran wasn’t sure if she was flirting or not, but it sure as hell felt like it. He let a smile unfurl across his face.

"What do you think?" she asked him. She was standing now, right next to him. They were close, even closer than they’d been in his office earlier. He wanted to shake his head like a dog to clear it, but knew it would do no good.

"What do you mean?" he asked, stalling.

"Of my work. You told me what the Viscount thinks, but you see everything I do before he does. What do you think?" Nori asked. 

Bran thought before answering, knowing that she’d prefer honesty to general platitudes. "Do you remember going to a party with your parents when were eighteen? It was a dinner fundraiser for the hospital and your father gave the keynote."

"Vaguely."

"When you shook my hand you criticized an article I'd written as short-sighted. You told me it 'ignored the thought of the future to provide a smokescreen of progress.'"

"Ouch."

"You were right. I was so angry that an eighteen year old had knocked me on my back and blown through my arguments that I couldn't even read that article afterwards. It made me rethink my entire position." He looked her in the eye before continuing.

"I was so impressed by that meeting and your subsequent work that I recommended you for this job. You always exceeds my expectations."

"Thank you, messere," Nori said quietly. He hadn't qualified the statement, making it as much about her work as it was about her. She was still looking at him, eyes dark and bottomless. They just might pull him in, one of these days or nights.

"Get back to work, we still have Meredith to deal with," he said to her, breaking their eye contact finally. She gave him a mock salute and walked out of the room.


	8. A Resolution and a Dance

Meredith Stannard’s overarching promises weren't a problem that could be swept by the wayside, much as the Viscount’s staff wished they could. They each were busy with their own work, and adding the damage control for Meredith’s rash words to their daily workload frayed more than a few tempers. After spending days researching the obscure policies she'd cobbled together to make points in her speech, Nori was sure that it was just posturing to save her position. Not a lot of it made sense when broken down, like so many political promises and schemes. Meredith’s so-called new, aggressive policies for the environment, weren't in practice as new or aggressive as she led people to believe by her passionate speech. Nori was slightly disappointed that Meredith hadn't actually picked more substantial reforms than the ones she named. They were flimsy, band-aid measures at best, the kind that politicians liked to keep on the books and point to whenever the public got up in arms about the issue.

"You've got the Viscount in five minutes," Brennan said as Nori got up from her desk.

With just a minute to review exactly what the meeting was about, she gathered her things. It was Meredith, of course. Her promises fell squarely into Nori’s lap, though the whole of the office was dealing with the fallout. She went to the Viscount's office, folder in hand of the information that she'd gathered about the current policies versus the ones that Meredith had spoken about. Some of the current ones were more stringent in practice than the ones the Assemblywoman had hoped to put in place.

"He's just finishing up recording the weekly address." Elthina, the Viscount's assistant told her as she appeared outside the door.

The Viscount used to pen a weekly address to be published in the papers every week but now he recorded an audio segment. They streamed it on their website and sent it to the local talk radio station. While she was waiting, Bran came and stood with her, his own folio of notes in hand. She smiled at him, suddenly shy in his presence, but warmed by his surprised answering smirk. He never really smiled, especially not when caught off-guard, but his smirk was rather endearing.

"What are you going to say?" she asked him and he shook his head slightly, indicating that it wasn't favorable. Neither was what she had to say. It was a bad day to be Meredith in Kirkwall.

"You aren't nervous are you?" Bran asked her as they stood together, loitering outside the Viscount’s office. Elthina had gone into the office to announce them, but hadn't come back out yet. It was the first time Nori had been summoned to give anything directly to the Viscount without the rest of the Senior staff.

"No, I just don't like giving people bad news," Nori said, suppressing a sigh. "Plus, I wanted to like Meredith but her policy analyst wasn't working very hard when they did their research. She wouldn't have this problem if she'd hired me."

"If she'd hired you, she'd probably be Viscount and we're all better off without that," Bran remarked.

"He's ready for you." Elthina's slightly stooped form reappeared in front of them and Bran rushed forward to hold the door open for her.

"Your Excellency," Nori said at the same time as Bran, greeting the Viscount. He was sitting in an armchair and sipping out of a teacup.

"Norina, Bran. Talk to me about our friend Meredith." Viscount Dumar said, motioning for them to sit on his couch. She sat down first, smoothing her skirt under her and Bran sat next to her. There was room enough for them to be further apart, but he was close enough that their knees brushed as he crossed his legs.

The office of the Viscount was huge, more than three times the space she had in her office, and with a whole wall of windows. She knew there was a door, one that led directly to an emergency stairwell hidden behind a bookshelf but she couldn't tell which one. The room was lined with bookshelves and windows, and pieces of art hung on the walls that looked similar to the ones in Bran's office. The whole room was filled with light, despite the heavy, dark wood and deep colors used in the decor. His desk bore the seal of the Viscount on the front, and it was woven into his carpet. It was an impressive room and she knew that the better she got at her job, the more she would have an audience with the Viscount.

"Viscount, Meredith Stannard made some promises that we're not even sure are what she thought she was promising," Bran began, launching into his description of Meredith on the Assembly floor. Nori cut in smoothly when he was finished describing the scene with her analysis of the toothless proposals that made up the backbone of Meredith's so-called aggressive measures.

"I see, so Meredith not only made demands of our office without warning us, she backed the wrong horse by doing shoddy research,” Viscount Dumar said, summarizing their lengthy description succinctly.

"Yes, Your Excellency," Nori said, agreeing with the assessment.

"And she won't back down?" Dumar asked.

"No, Your Excellency. We're tried to get her office to reverse some of what they said, or at least acknowledge that some of it was erroneous, that there are measures in place that are already more effective but they won't," Bran stated. “She won’t admit she’s wrong.”

"Well, now she's covering her mistakes by pretending she never made any. Typical Meredith." The Viscount sighed sadly. "What do you think Nori?" he asked her, looking directly at her as he waited for her answer. It took her a moment to recover from the unexpected shock of being addressed directly, but only a scant second.

"I think you should encourage her resignation Your Excellency," Nori said without hesitation.

"Do you?" Dumar practically hummed the words. Bran turned to look at her, but said nothing, his face unreadable. The Viscount was easier to understand -- he was interested in her opinion.

"Yes. It's easier to control the fallout that way. She's made mistakes but had she openly admitted them and fired whoever advised her so poorly on the policy it would be the end. By not admitting to the mistake she's dragging it out and making Kirkwall weaker in the Assembly not to mention wasting our resources as we argue with her. It makes Kirkwall look like squabbling children," she said, explaining her harsh suggestion in the best way possible. Since she’d offered the suggestion, she needed to have a reason for it, otherwise it would just look like sour grapes.

The Viscount and Bran were both silent after she spoke, and Nori grew nervous. Had she overstepped her bounds? She was new to the office, and she’d never once called for the resignation of someone so powerful before. Subordinates she’d taken care of herself, but something like this -- it was her first time playing in the big leagues. When she looked over at Bran, he nodded at her, just a small, slight movement. That was all she needed to regain her confidence. He agreed with her, and if Bran did, the Viscount likely would. That didn’t mean he would take her suggestion and have Meredith resign, but Nori could hope.

"Thank you Norina, Bran. That will be all." Viscount Dumar dismissed them with an amused look on his face.

"Come to my office, Nori," Bran said as they walked out of the Viscount's office. She followed him without thought, nearly walking into him when he stopped just inside his office. Nori turned back and closed the door before rejoining him.

"Meredith should resign? I agree, but you could have told me what you were thinking before we went in. At the very least so I am not standing there making my best fish-out-of-water face at the Viscount. That thought didn't just come out of the air."

"You're right, and I apologize," Nori said to Bran, hardly paying attention to him.

Her mind was turning over thoughts rapidly, going through a list of people that might be ready for the Assembly. Nori reached out and took his hand in hers, squeezing it briefly, her mind elsewhere, unaware of how forward she was being. She could be bold, wanted to be with Bran, but knew that wasn’t the way. Or rather, she did when she was thinking clearly, but she was lost in her own fog of thoughts, head spinning too rapidly to pay proper attention to the outside world. Which is how she wound up holding Bran’s hand while he stood there, stock still, startled and unable to figure out quite what to say. Nori didn’t notice.

"It won't happen again," she murmured distractedly, after a considerable pause. "I need to get back to my office and do something. Is that all?"

"I..uh. Yes, that's all."

Nori dropped his hand absently and walked away, pausing to run a hand through her hair as she thought. Bran stared at her as she left, but she never saw his questioning stare as it was aimed at her retreating back. The spark of idea that had come to her was already flying, names and people and placements, mostly she was concentrating on a replacement for Meredith. They’d need someone quickly.

As afternoon descended into evening, the sky turning pink outside, the deed was done. The Viscount had in fact taken Nori’s suggestion, and had been amused by her forthrightness, but pleased by her acumen, as he noted in an email to her. The announcement was expected in the morning. Meredith was difficult and she'd probably decide to just not seek reelection instead, serving out the remainder of her term. It didn't matter to them, so long as they could stop talking about her and cleaning up after her messes.

"It's been done; she won't seek reelection." Bran said, standing in Nori's doorway just as she finished reading the email from the Viscount.

"I know. I knew when you did it."

"Before, in my office, what were you thinking about?"

"Who should take her seat. Who would you pick?" she asked, giving him a smile. She knew she’d zoned out in his office, and he was treating her warily, like she was unpredictable. Her smile was meant to reassure him, but Bran didn’t return it as he had that morning outside the Viscount’ s office.

"Orsino is her deputy,” he answered.

"Which is why he will remain at her side when she tries to become Viscountess."

"Do you really think they're that stupid?"

"I know they are," Nori said, sitting back in her chair. Orisino wasn’t a dumb man, but powerless on his own. He kept Meredith in check, as much as he could. Without her, he didn’t have much. Meredith was strong, ambitious and mostly oblivious. Trying to become Viscountess seemed like just the type of thing she would do.

"Who do you think?" Bran finally asked her.

"Thrask. Good on all of our major issues, soft and malleable but a commanding figure. One daughter, widower but doesn't date, still wears his wedding band and looks good on camera," Nori summarized. "I checked around and he's ready, he just needs support."

Bran looked away as he thought about it, then nodded at her. He said a goodnight, and left her office. Nori felt her face burn. It was so difficult to read him, to know where she was standing -- in her job and personally. It bothered her that she so wanted to be sure there was a personal standing between them. She blew out a breath and turned back to her email, pleased that at least, Meredith was dealt with.

#

Nori knew that part of her new senior position would be increased visibility, especially after that stupid magazine staff profile that had been suggested. She knew it, but it tried her when she was issued a request to go to a fundraising gala for Thrask with the rest of the Senior staff. This was her own doing, more fallout from dealing with Meredith. Thrask needed money if he was going to announce his candidacy with any legitimacy. The whole of the Viscount’s Keep was going to support him.

The fundraiser was on a Friday night and therefore disrupted her plans of ordering in greasy food and eating it over the sink in her sweatpants and a sports bra. When the day arrived she found herself walking home to change into a formal dress before returning to the office to ride to the hotel where the gala was being held with the rest of the staffers.

She'd chosen a demure royal blue trapeze dress with a hem that hit just below her knee. It had a one shoulder neckline with a swath of sequins at the top. She paired it with a small sequined bag in an almost matching shade of blue and open toed shoes. Her hair was in a low chignon and she'd put on more dramatic makeup, black liner and dark eyeshadow bringing out her brown eyes, a pinkish brown shade of lipstick replacing her normal workaday brown lip color.

When she got back to the building most of the people that were going were waiting in the lobby. They were a good-looking crew, Sebastian dressed in his family colors, and everyone else in more standard finery. Elegant and her husband were there, and she wore a dress in a light shade of lilac that flattered her complexion. Varric let out a wolf whistle when Nori walked in and she gave him a little twirl. More eyes than Varric’s watched her. Elegant clapped when she was done.

"You're lucky I'm spoken for Nori, otherwise I'd be plying you with drinks tonight," Varric said to her. Nori giggled.

"You flatter me Varric."

She also realized that none of her other co-workers were making statements about their lack of intent as she looked up to see Bran watching her intently. She turned away before he saw her smile to herself. Tonight would be interesting even if it only resulted in another tale for her to tell Beth. Sebastian was open in his appreciation, but respectful. He didn’t say anything, but gave her a warm smile just as they were distracted by the arrival of the cars. Their lights shone into the building momentarily as they pulled into the drive and they all exited. Nori would be relieved when all of this formality was ended. If she had to be with her colleagues after working hours, she at least wanted to be comfortable.

A hand gently touched the small of her back as she waited to get into the car. She turned slightly to find that Bran owned the hand that still lingered and she shot him a smile over her shoulder. He sat next to her in the car, carefully not touching her further, and she sat there wishing he would simply brush her on accident. It never happened but when she slid out of the car, he was there, offering his hand to help her out.

There was a dinner first, and a silent auction. The Viscount and Bran were seated with the man of the hour, Thrask himself, as he held court at the head table. Sebastian was the only person at her table that she knew, and although he was just to her right, on her left was a woman intensely interested in speaking across her to him. His attempts to bring her into their conversation were thwarted by the woman next to her; she might as well have been invisible. Two tables away, Bran was engaged in conversation and she didn't try to catch his eye, even though she caught herself glancing at him occasionally. Perhaps it was for the best, because she had no idea what she’d do if she did get his attention.

Dinner was miserable, the food was decent but in portions much too small for her liking. Nori found herself fervently missing her ritual of eating overpriced delivery food over the kitchen sink. Absently, she wondered if the man who took her order every week would even notice that she hadn't called. If she could make it home before they closed, she would get enough food for several people and eat it all herself. When she thought of standing in front of her refrigerator with the door half open, eating cold fried rice a shiver of delight sped through her and she nearly laughed aloud with how strange her ritual was, but it was comforting. If only she got home in time.

When dinner was over, people started to speak at the podium, playing up the fine attributes of their candidate Thrask. She half-listened, not really caring about the event but hoping for some dessert buffet to supplement their meager dinner. It didn't come but a band did start playing and people began dancing as they waited for the results of the silent auction to tally. The winners would be announced at the end, ensuring that the bulk of the crowd would be in attendance for the night. She hadn’t bid on anything in the hopes that she might be able to slip out as soon as other people from the Keep started to leave.

As the band launched into standards, a woman asked Sebastian to dance and left her alone at the table. Nori quickly moved away from the dance floor, lest someone think she was interested in dancing at all. Besides dancing, there was little mingling going on. She got up to look at the items that had been up for bidding, their tally sheets now gone, and took the chance to move further from the dance floor. She found herself sitting alone at a far table, looking at her phone until Bran spotted her and sat down next to her.

"Hiding?" he asked her.

"I don't dance," Nori answered simply, though it was a lie. She didn’t want to, not here.

"You look stunning tonight," he said suddenly.

"Why...thank you. You are quite handsome yourself in your tuxedo, but you're always handsome Bran," Nori babbled and regretted her slip as soon as it came out of her mouth.

Bran gave her a hard, appraising look, as if this time, she’d truly overstepped. Too late, she remembered that he could fire her and sweat broke out on her forehead as trepidation coiled in her nervous stomach. It was too impudent to just say, but she could blame it on the alcohol and laugh it off just this once, yes, it must be the champagne on her nearly empty stomach causing her to talk too much. But he wouldn’t believe it, not after she’d held his hand in his office and been smiling at him like a dork for the past few weeks.

"Do you want a raise?" he asked, finally the light from the candles on the table bringing out the yellow in his narrowed eyes. Incredulity laced his tone, and she understood. He didn’t believe she was really flirting with him. It was all well and good at the office, but here, under these dim lights and with music playing, it was too close to being real. Nori gave a dry laugh as relief and disappointment took hold in her.

"Not at all. Well, yes but that's not why I said that. You're very handsome and I've drank too much champagne. The one noodle and an artfully arranged sprig of lettuce weren't at all enough food." He chuckled at her rambling explanation, the sound warming her from the inside out.

"Come dance with me," he said, taking her hand. His hand felt cool in hers, and she threaded her fingers through his as they got up.

"All right but if Sebastian tries to cut in, you owe me."

"If he does, I'll steal you back."

She let him lead her out to the dance floor with that promise. His hand was only slightly bigger than hers, but with a better manicure. As they got there the song ended and the music changed, sliding into a waltz. Nori did know how to waltz. It was apparent that even if she hadn’t it wouldn’t matter, Bran was a strong partner; she could follow his lead without thought. Their dance was fluid, both of them light on their feet.

"This isn't so bad is it?" Bran muttered to her.

"No, dancing with you isn't bad at all. Can you blame me for wanting to be at home eating takeout though?"

"You'd be at home?"

"It's what I do best. I have work to finish up," she said, thinking more about the video games she was neglecting than her real work.

"You don't always have to work," he said, admonishing her lightly.

"Aren't you my boss's boss? Shouldn't you be encouraging me to work more?"

"It's Friday night, Nori. Surely you'd have some place to go or some plans with your friends?"

"Yes, well sometimes I go to my Mother's house or to visit my friend Aveline, but she's got twin babies so not so much with the nighttime visits."

"What about your boyfriend?" Bran asked. She smiled, aware that he was fishing, but indulged him with the truth.

"I haven't been on a date since I left Tantervale."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

"Yes, you did, but it's okay. I guess this is one of my better Friday nights since I got to dance with such a charming and powerful man."

"You might just get a raise if you keep that up." His tone was droll and she could feel his hand pressing into her side, lower than it should be, close to her hip. She surprised him when she tilted her head back gave a ringing laugh, the clear sound rising above the music. They danced in silence for a few minutes, clapping for the musicians when the song was over.

They danced another song together, the two of them making small talk about nothing in particular. She let herself press against him ever so slightly as they danced, not enough to be noticed by any curious eyes, but more than was strictly necessary. Bran said nothing, if he did notice. As the second song ended and they applauded the band once more, Sebastian came over, just as she’d predicted. This was why she’d been avoiding the dancefloor.

"I hate to interrupt, but I'd like to take a turn around the dance floor with Nori if you don't mind." Sebastian's voice came from behind Bran's left shoulder. She'd just taken his hand in hers again and was looking forward to the next dance.

It would be bad manners to say no, not when she’d just danced with Bran twice. To her surprise, Bran gave her a reassuring squeeze as he released her. Sebastian danced well, but together they weren't as good as she'd been with Bran. Perhaps it was because she wasn't intuitive enough to anticipate his flourishes, or that he wasn't as good at leading her as Bran. Nori stepped on his feet a few times, and caught herself looking down instead of at him, trying to make sure it wouldn't happen again. He didn't seem to mind as he talked at her. As in the Keep, a lot of his stories surrounded him or his family, and try as she might to keep up with them, she couldn’t. She nodded and appeared interested for two songs, waiting for a chance to sit out, lest someone else come over and demand a dance.

"Excuse me, but there's a phone call for Lady Hawke." One of the event staffers was standing near them and Nori thanked the Maker for small mercies as she left Sebastian to take her call. It was Bran.

"I had to go back to the office, but I said I'd steal you back if Sebastian came over." Nori smiled into the phone as Bran called her from his mobile.

"Thanks, but I think you still owe me."

"I'll think of something," he said before wishing her a goodnight.

The next day she got flowers, a bouquet of two dozen red roses. The card read: _I look forward to our next dance._ Nori smiled, just as she had when he'd called her on the phone the night before.


	9. Nori's Crush

The red roses were mostly closed into buds, but Nori looked forward to them blooming. They were all pure, dark red as if he’d called up the florist and demanded the very best. All perfect, closed, and very lovely. They reminded her in a way of the man that sent them, and she hoped that this was the beginning of something that might bloom between the two of them as well. Then again, he might have just been being polite, but they passed that stage the night before, with their careful compliments and flirting and dancing.

She had little time to admire her bouquet, Nori was scheduled to meet Aveline and her children in the park that day. It would be the first time Nori had seen her friend since the birth of her babies a few months back. She was excited to see the twin girls that she’d seen so many pictures and videos of online. Donnic sent out regular email updates. Aveline and Donnic had been together for some time, but they'd put off having children for years, although they had talked about it. There had been some trepidation on Aveline’s part, mostly because she was so dedicated to her job.

Aveline was one of the few people in Kirkwall that worked for the Federal Free Marches investigators, moving there from the local police squad where her husband Donnic still worked. Nori's father had been the one to recommend her for the elite squad, it had been one of the projects he'd championed in the Assembly. When he died, the whole Kirkwall branch turned out at his memorial service.

Standing in the sun on the warm autumn day, Nori scanned the park looked for Aveline's distinctive ginger hair. She spotted her not too far away sitting on a bench waiting for her and rushed over to give her friend a hug and a hand with her babies. Donnic wasn't with her but that was no surprise since he worked rotating shifts at the police department. He could very well be at work or just sleeping with the girls out of the house.

"How are my favorite babies?" she cooed at the identical twin girls, Bonnie and Beatrice in their double stroller.

They were awake, but looking likely to drop off during their stroller ride around the park. When she stood back up, she and Aveline began to walk down the paved path that circled the main part of the park. Nori pushing the babies as Aveline walked beside her, still shouldering her diaper bag. It looked like it weighed a ton.

"It's good to see you, Hawke." Aveline said. She looked tired, but Nori hadn’t expected her to be well rested with new babies in the house. She gave her friend a warm smile and was treated to a tired one in return.

Aveline du Lac had been in her senior year when Nori was a freshman rugby player and they'd bonded. Specifically when Aveline helped a drunk and injured Nori home from a match and she'd actually made amends for being a drunken ass. Aveline liked that she took responsibility for her irresponsibility and they'd become close, Aveline coming home with her over the holidays and assorted weekend trips home because her father and mother were both gone. Right out of college she’d married her boyfriend Wesley Vallen, who’d died not three years into their marriage.

After Wesley died, Aveline had left Ferelden, but without a family connection of her own, she’d come to Kirkwall and sought out the Hawke family she’d visited so many times during her final year of college. Nori liked to think that Aveline settled in Kirkwall because her parents had invited her for dinner every Sunday when she’d first arrived and she hadn't been able to break that connection. It helped that her second husband was from here, tying her to the place even before they’d wed.

"How is maternity leave?" Nori asked, knowing her workaholic friend probably missed her job as much as she loved her girls.

"It's nearly over is what it is. Six months flew by, but I will be glad to get back into work. I miss it. Oh, I meant to ask you if you wanted to take some self-defense classes with me."

"Aveline, would you need a self-defense class? You already know several forms of hand-to-hand combat pretty well," Nori pointed out.

"It's about getting back into shape. I want to make sure I haven't gotten sloppy, being away this long has made me worry about my skills," Aveline said.

When Nori glanced at Aveline, she was in the same shape she'd always been in, magnificent. Aveline had exercised throughout her pregnancy, but Nori guessed it wasn't about losing muscle tone and more about feeling out of shape.

"Sure, but I work crap hours," Nori said, thinking of all the times she left the office well after dark. "Let me know what you're thinking and I'll make some time for it."

"Nothing could be as bad as the hours Donnic's got now," Aveline said, and Nori let her launch into a story about bureaucracy and budget cuts and police politics. It sounded much the same as it had been when Aveline worked there, but Nori was too savvy to point out that fact.

They walked around the park and talked, Aveline taking a turn at pushing the stroller when Nori grew tired. Aveline mostly talked, and Nori had the feeling that she hadn’t been out of her house with a friend in a good long time. She was happy to listen to Aveline go on about her marriage and kids, the outrageous cost of decent childcare and how much she missed her job. She knew Aveline missed her job terribly and the companionship she found on the force. Though her work friends stopped by, it seemed like their visits made Aveline even more wistful to get back to the job she so loved.

"You should stop by my Mother's the next time you're in Old Hightown. I am sure she'd love to see your girls," Nori told Aveline as they hugged again.

"It's been awhile since I've seen Leandra. I'd really love to see her and Bethany soon."

"Someone's always there. You should stop in. Merrill lives there with Carver now but Beth has a boyfriend that she goes to see. Mother does her charities and art classes but she's around."

"Your mother never went back to work?"

"Her heart wasn't in it once Father died. She said she wanted to be more creative, so she started taking art classes and sitting on charity boards. She took over Father’s seat on the hospital board of directors too, and that's always busy."

"And what about you? I know I monopolized our conversation, but you look well. How's work?"

"It's been going very well, Aveline. It’s tough work, though, challenging. The pace is faster than the Assembly but that's why they pay me the big bucks." Nori debated telling Aveline about Bran, but that would take more time then they had. When she thought about him, about how it felt dancing with him last night, she felt a blush creep over her body. She said silent prayers in those few seconds that Aveline wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but she was busy fussing over her kids as she listened.

"Keep up the good work, but don't forget to have a life. I know how you can get, locking yourself in your apartment, only opening the door for food deliveries."

"Thank you for making me sound like a recluse.”

"Hawke, I'm serious. Go out and have fun too. You work too hard, but that's why I like you."

"That’s rich coming from you,” Nori said, making Aveline laugh unexpectedly.

“I suppose it is, seeing as how I’m itching to get back to work. I will miss my time at home, and I’m so nervous about putting them in day care. You hear such stories,” Aveline started, but shook her head. “Nevermind. I better get going before they wake up. It’s almost time for them to eat, which means I need to eat too.”

“Then get home, Aveline, before they wake up, otherwise you'll be out here trying to nurse."

The two women hugged and Nori watched Aveline go in the opposite direction back towards her house. She wished Donnic had been able to come out to the park today; it'd been a long time since she'd seen him. Maybe she'd stop by their house sometime for dinner, if she could figure out his schedule. Donnic always made the best dinners. Then again, if he was as tired as Aveline, maybe she’d stop by and bring them dinner.

The smoky smell of a wood fire burning wafted to Nori on a slight breeze, filling her with the sense of warmth and joy that was unique to autumn. It made her want to walk home and enjoy the beautiful fall day, watching the late afternoon light dance between leaves just starting to turn color. She did walk through Kirkwall, taking her time as she went, stopping in at her favorite store to pick up some food that wasn’t greasy and delivered for dinner. As she left the store, Bethany called her. Nori answered gleefully, bursting to finally talk to someone about the night before, about Bran and the flowers.

"I got sent flowers from a very handsome and charming man," Nori said into the phone.

"Really? Ooh Sister, were they from Anders?" Bethany asked. The question threw Nori right off, almost making her walk into someone as she tried to recover from the shock.  
"What? No! He's with someone else now back in Tantervale. The flowers are from a man from work. There was a fundraiser last night that we all went to, and we danced together a few times and he sent me flowers today. There may have been some flirting as well. I think I've got a crush." She was unsure how to describe Bran to her sister, but he was more than just her co-worker. Besides, she was in public. She definitely did not want to use names and have someone overhear her.

"That's exciting! Do you think anything could come of it?"

"I don't know, but he dances very well."

"You know what that means then." Bethany giggled into the phone. "He's going to be good in bed."

"I hope I get to find out," Nori answered and the two of them giggled. "How's your boyfriend, speaking of good in bed?"

"No complaints in that department. Oh Nori, he's so great. I can't get over how sweet he is,” Bethany gushed. She launched into a short tale about Keran, the witty things he'd said and the time they'd spent together recently. Nori was happy the relationship was going well for Beth, listening to her sister go on as she reached her apartment.

#

On Monday she went to Bran's office first before she stopped in her own. Bran was sitting behind his desk, checking his email and scowling at his computer. Whatever he was reading wasn't to his liking, his expression darkening as she stood in his doorway observing him. His suit jacket was slung over the back of his chair, and he was wearing a white shirt with blue stripes and a red tie. Nori leaned against his door with her briefcase held in front of her and her purse over one shoulder. She was wearing an eggplant hued pencil skirt paired with a cream colored shell top and a short sleeved cardigan.

"I wanted to thank you for the flowers and for the dance," Nori said, speaking up after she tired of waiting for him to notice her. When she spoke, he looked up at her and his whole countenance changed, morphing from scowl to smile quickly.

"You liked them? I wasn't sure." Nori got the feeling he was sure when he sent them, but had come to rethink it over the weekend. It was why she was being so careful now, just in case he regretted flirting with her on Friday night.

"They are beautiful; easily the nicest thing in my apartment right now. I know they’re classic, but I adore roses."

"It was my pleasure," he said. She couldn’t stop the smile that sprang to her face, and was surprised to see an answering one from Bran.

Every time their eyes met, she felt her heart skip a beat. It was silly really, because she wasn’t a young girl with a crush, yet that’s exactly how she felt. When Bran stared at her, she was fourteen again and at summer camp, crushing on one of the older counselors. He was still smiling at her, holding her gaze and she knew she had to get out of his office before she blurted out just how much she liked him. Nori gave him a nod before walking out to her own office.

She wasn't supposed to have an office crush, and if it had to be anyone, she was glad it was him. He was almost unattainable. Practically safe. Much safer than say, Sebastian, who was like a taxi with the light on, eagerly looking for that next fare. Nori just had to manage to keep Bran at a comfortable distance, and it would pass. Hopefully before she made too big of a fool of herself.

Bran’s voice came from his office, now sounding annoyed and waspish as he began yelling about the status of his coffee. His assistant Ruvena bustled by with a cup in her hands just as the complaining was building up steam. For one mad moment, Nori considered turning back around to ask him if there was some compelling reason he didn't get his own damn coffee, but she let it slide. Even though she knew Bran was likely to find her rebuke amusing, coming from her, she didn’t want to push her luck. It hadn't escaped her notice that he treated her differently than the others. Maybe, just maybe, she wasn't the only one with a crush. The realization made her grin even wider as she walked by Brennan.


	10. An Impromptu Concert

The rains had come to Kirkwall, a city already burdened with too much grey and a landscape that looked worse in gloomy weather. Nori regretted her decision to walk to work everyday, but at least the rains here weren’t as bad as they got in Ferelden. Fall was fighting the inevitable season change, but neither was winning right now. She outfitted herself in a black and grey plaid raincoat, hat and rubber boots before leaving her building for work, hoping that she could make it there reasonably dry. One block from her apartment, a black car pulled up alongside Nori as she sloshed her way to work, face down to shield herself. Even with her giant umbrella and raincoat she was still managing to get soaked.

"Nori, get in the car." Bran's voice came from inside the car. The backseat of the car. He had a driver, but that didn’t really surprise her. A door had opened and he was staring at her, looking annoyed. She complied happily, trying not to get him too wet as she scrambled out of the pelting downpour.

"I can pick you up on rainy days, if you'd like," Bran said. "I go by your building and I see you walking most mornings. When I am not too early," he clarified. 

Bran was often at work early, and she wondered how often he’d actually seen her. Probably just a couple of times before now. The question was on her lips, but he was watching her with a wolfish gaze that made her skin flush. She thought of his hands on her as they danced, the flowers that were now blooming in her apartment. Her query became flirtier, less curious about the answer as she spoke.

"But you've only stopped this once because?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him. A smile played along her lips as she waited for an answer.

"You seem to like walking for some unfathomable reason," he answered, his voice lower than it had been before. The car felt smaller around them, but they were almost to the Keep. Silently, she prayed that they’d have to wait in a line of cars or something, just so she could continue sitting with him a little longer before they got to work.

"All right, but you'll have to call me beforehand, otherwise I'll just start walking. I've waited for too many people to pick me up to rely on others."

"You are so delightful. I graciously offer you a ride in bad weather and you set conditions on how you'd like to be picked up," he said, but there was no true exasperation in the words. Bran was amused.

"Do you like mediocrity? Does your old friend greet you when you do just enough?" 

Her hope had been in vain, because they pulled right up the door of the Viscount's Keep, and they went directly from the car to the canopy that hung over the doorway for just such weather. Bran was completely dry when they got in.

"I could give you such a censuring..." His threat was empty but she could tell he was nettled by her correct assessment.

"It's been an absurdly long time since my last censuring." Her voice dropped in pitch, getting husky and deep when she spoke, making her words sound absolutely filthy. No one else could hear them, the hall around them was alive with chatter, complaints and squeaks from wet shoes.

She busied herself taking off her hat, shaking her long hair out from underneath it. Her black hair gleamed in the overhead light from the faceted skylight and as she shook it out, gratified to see him watching the flow of her hair. When she finished, he matched her stride as they wended through the warren of halls.

"Don't think I'm not grateful, but is it too much to ask for consideration? Is my time not as valuable as yours?" she asked him, all wide eyes and wicked grins.

Since she’d gotten into the car, there had been an undeniable heat between them that was threatening to explode. Her fingers ached to pull him towards her, to stop just short of a kiss and whisper in his ear, lips brushed across his cheek. Nori shook herself, waiting for Bran to say something, anything.

"One day, you're going to get that censuring," he finally said, the words not anywhere approaching menacing. It was exciting, his former amusement banished by a hard look of determination. He meant it.

"One day, you're going to earn it," she threw over her shoulder as she went into her office. 

Nori hadn’t looked back to see his reaction, but she wished she could have. Her hands shook as she sat behind her desk, praying for rain for the next week. Or snow. Maker, let it be as icy as the frozen plains of the Korcari Wilds for all of winter. Anything to get back in the car with him.

She didn’t see him again that day, but not for lack of trying. Her meetings were with her subordinates, not the senior staff, save for a talk with Varric and Elegant. A news reporter wanted a few words about some policies she’d re-written, and Nori had to leave work early to make it. The light in Bran’s office shone bright as she left in the after-rain evening gloom. She hadn’t gone up to see him, but there had been no reason, no excuse she could make. They were still at work, and there was a line not to be crossed though today she would have happily skipped across it just to see the look on Bran’s face.

#

Bran knew they were heading towards a collision and saw no reason to stop it. He simply couldn’t get away from thoughts of her or the woman herself, and didn’t want to anymore. Nori was interested and it was more than reciprocated. It wasn’t that Bran had been oblivious to her more subtle flirtations, in fact, he’d liked her the moment she’d fallen into him on her first day -- but he had to be careful. Others had tried to curry favor with him in a misguided attempt to win power for themselves in one way or another. Nori’s interest was persistent, genuine and sometimes so downright honest it made him forget his own name.

He saw her on television later that week after he’d come home late, talking about some upcoming changes that she'd written. He watched her full mouth as she answered questions easily, heard her erudite words and felt her confidence as she delivered her prepared statements. It wasn't uncommon for any of them to be on television but it was the first time he'd seen Nori. Watching her after a day of seeing her made it inevitable that he would dream of her. He woke hot and flushed, wondering what her skin would feel like under his hands, how his name would sound when she whispered it. His inability to make their relationship transition from flirty to whatever came next was making him even more peevish than usual at work.

Whatever he’d offered, the next day he couldn’t pick her up on his way to work. There was no rain, at least not when he got up and went in to tackle the mountain of work that had been shoved aside during their crisis to cover up Meredith’s ineptitude. His meetings were both in person and on the phone for most of the day. He started down to see her, a folder full of nothing important in his hand as a cover, but Brennan stopped him.

“If you’re looking for Hawke, she’s been gone for a half hour. Had to go to the dentist,” Brennan said. She peered at the folder then said, “I can take that messere, and leave it for her.”

Bran shook his head too quickly, disappointed. “No, no, nevermind. It’s nothing that can’t wait and I might work on it this weekend.”

“Working through the weekend again?” Brennan asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. “If you decide to leave it, just put it on my desk. I’ll see that she knows it’s here.”

“Thanks, Brennan,” he said, but didn’t leave the folder. 

Bran mounted the steps back the way he’d come, retreating like a dog with its tail between his legs. He cursed as he slunk back to his office, upset that a whole weekend would go by without another chance to talk to her. Sebastian stopped him as he came up the steps, and he knew that this last hour of his day was going to be a trial. Work wasn’t foremost on his mind, but he’d missed her, and tried to shove the thoughts of her aside.

It was almost as if he couldn't avoid things connected to her without actually seeing Nori herself. Friday evening at the bookstore he spotted a biography of her father in the local books section and picked it up immediately. When he flipped open the cover, he saw that she'd written the foreword to the book. His decision to buy the tome seemed more like a forgone conclusion after seeing her name on it.

All evening he read about the life of Malcolm Hawke, how he grew up in Ferelden and met Leandra Amell by chance when he was visiting Kirkwall. It was strange to know he was Fereldan, he became such a well-known figure of Kirkwall, served as a representative of Kirkwall and worked towards a more solidified Free Marches. In politics, his stubbornness was legendary, he could disagree and keep a point from moving on once it was under consideration. It was said that the Assembly didn't let out until Malcolm Hawke was satisfied or overruled.

Reluctantly, Bran put the book down when his eyes began to close of their own accord. He had nearly finished the biography, but found himself going back to the beginning to read the words Nori had penned about her own father. It was touching to see a daughter's remembrance of the father she'd idolized. He'd never considered that she might have taken the job at the Viscount's office so she could come back to Kirkwall, but now it made sense to him. It was probably her primary motivation, despite the financial incentives they'd offered her.

Tomorrow was Saturday, and he would be free to do his work at the Keep without her around. Bran couldn’t tell if he was excited or upset by the prospect. Probably both, he reasoned tiredly as he fell asleep. Malcolm Hawke’s biography was his only bed companion that night.

#

Friday evenings were Nori’s alone time. For the weekend, she often had plans, friends and family to visit, things to do. But on Friday, she let herself do whatever she wanted to wind down from the week. Last Friday, she hadn’t been able to do so because of the fundraiser for Thrask, but this short time was all hers. If she managed to stay awake, she was going to make a gin and tonic and play video games. They were her preferred method of distraction when she had the time. Killing things was surprisingly meditative, at least to her.

Not long into her Friday night ritual, the power shut off in Nori's apartment. She’d been in the middle of a game. She cursed, hoping that she'd passed her last save point not too long before and moped around her apartment, trying to find her flashlight. Using her phone, she navigated around the apartment until she could find a candle to light. The building next to hers was out too, as was likely the whole block. At least the unexpected darkness gave her a chance to see the stars from her large windows without a glare. It wasn't clear, but the wisps of dreamy clouds passed in front of a bright moon, only partially obscuring the night sky.

When she yawned, Nori glanced at her phone, surprised to see that it was just after midnight. She would have gone for another two hours at least, but perhaps this was for the best . Even though tomorrow was Saturday, she'd planned on going into the office for a short while. If there was no power here, she would just go in early than planned and take advantage of the ability to charge her phone there. She could call her mother and arrange to stay there if the power stayed out for a very long time. That wasn’t likely, considering that it was getting colder out and people needed their heat, but then again, it all depended on what the problem was.

When she awoke the next morning, she knew the power was still out. The electronics in her apartment had no underlying hum of energy, and the building itself was silent. The air was cold around her and she realized that the heat hadn't come on because it too used electricity. Nori burrowed in her blanket for a while before making herself get out of bed before she froze. After a bracingly cold shower, she decided to just head to her office. Nori dressed using a flashlight and brushed her hair, not making much of an effort in the darkness. She shoved her things into a large overnight bag before making the trek to work. She definitely wasn’t coming back if the power wasn’t on. No power meant no elevator, and she lived on the top floor.

It was early and Kirkwall was quiet and still in the new light. Nori walked quickly to work, the leather strap of her overstuffed bag cutting into her shoulder through her peacoat. The ground around her was covered in frost, a bite in the air that was uncomfortable instead of crisp. She was glad she hadn't washed her hair, it would have frozen on her walk to the Keep.

No one was around when she got into the place, save for a sleepy-eyed security guard that waved at her. It was so silent inside that it was almost eerie. She started to talk to herself without realizing it, just to hear some noise.

“All right, time to get some music on before I go crazy in here,” she muttered, sitting her bag down. 

There was no one else around, therefore no one to notice if she didn’t start straight in on the work. A few minutes to get herself together, and anyone that came in later would be none the wiser.

#

Bran's car pulled into the driveway at work and he exited, telling the driver the time he'd be ready to leave, hoping that it was accurate. Work was tumbling from large piles off of his desk, and there was no end in sight if he didn’t work weekends. Perhaps it was a good thing he had no significant other or spouse, his free time was minimal at the best of times. The Keep, for better or worse, was his home. Several other people worked on the weekends as he did, but none with the same dedication. Working six days a week but it gave him a sense of comfort, a stability as well as letting him work without the interruptions of the weekday.

He’d just reached the second floor landing when he heard a noise, no, a melody. Someone was singing, a husky, deep female voice in a powerful contralto. The song was about love, she seemed to be singing along with her music coming out of the computer speakers. He knew it was Nori before he began to realize he was walking towards the sound. She could carry a tune very well, her singing untrained but pure and startling in its power. Bran heard her more clearly as he walked towards her office, listening to the words. The song was about love -- as most popular songs seemed to be -- but this one was about moving on from a love. Picking up the pieces and facing the day. It resonated with him in a way he didn’t quite understand at that moment, and he stopped just short of her door. Bran didn't want to embarrass her, he knew if anyone heard him sing, he'd be mortified, but he couldn't stop himself from going to her office. He wanted to see her singing.

She was doing her hair of all things, taking sections of it and curling it and he watched as she turned her straight dark hair into large, loose curls. Her office smelled of the hot scent of her hair mixed with a slightly sweet smell like hairspray or whatever it was she used. Nori's back was to him and she was still singing, finishing her hair. It amused him to see her dance slightly to the song, shifting in her seat as she worked. He stood in her office with his arms crossed over his chest, not daring to announce his presence and break her stride. 

Before the song finished, she completed whatever she'd been doing to her with her hair, brushing out a lush curl with her fingers as she turned around in her seat, facing her computer again. She saw him and ignored him, continuing to sing as the song played itself out. He stood there, just listening and watching her until she finished, giving her a soft clap at the end.

"Enjoying the concert?"

"Why are you doing your hair in the office?"

"My power went out last night and it hadn't come back by on this morning." Bran watched her start to put her things back in the large overnight bag that was behind her.

“Did you just come here to use the power? Surely your mother would have welcomed you.” 

Nori rolled her eyes, a gesture that was more than a little out of character for her. He’d worked with her in trying, frustrating situations and she’d never once been less than professional, but mention her mother and she rolled her eyes. He shot her a silent question with one raised eyebrow.

“I could have called, but I was planning on coming here anyway.” She sat up straighter, starting to organize some papers on her desk with brisk efficiency, not looking at him. “And hopefully when I leave at lunchtime the power will be back. No need to bother my whole family about it.”

"You aren't going to stick around?" He wanted her to stay around so he could drop by and ask her questions, even just to see her.

"I am, I've got work to do. I meant to do it at home but then no power meant no internet.” She stretched and he followed the line of her body, his eyes mostly on her breasts. If she noticed where his gaze lingered, Nori said nothing. “At least I didn't have to get dressed up today,” she continued, “why are you wearing a suit?" she asked, a pointed look at his tie.

"Habit." He wasn’t sure he owned much that he couldn’t wear to work, but Bran preferred his suits.

"You need to relax, Bran." She started getting her folders out and when she got up to pull a book from her shelf, he saw she was wearing riding pants and boots, as if she'd planned for an equestrian afternoon. He knew that it was just a nod to fashion and he appreciated her curves in the form-fitting clothes.

"If I had known you'd be here today, I would have gotten you a tea when I stopped for coffee." Ruvena wasn’t in today, so Bran got his own coffee. Rue was better at it, she did something, had them add a flavor that he never remembered to order when he did it on his own.

"How did you know I don't drink coffee?" Nori asked, intrigued.

"I've only ever seen you drink it once, and then it could barely be called coffee. It was more like milk and sugar with a smidgen of coffee. It's always tea for you, usually green or black."

"I'm impressed." Nori smiled at him and Bran grinned back at her, feeling like he'd just passed a test he hadn't known he was taking. “Maybe next weekend.”

"I should get to work. I'll see you later,” he said, withdrawing from her office.

He'd wanted to tell her that he knew how to relax, that they could relax together all morning long on the couch in his office. There was no way he could say that to her, it was like the walls of the Keep threatened and menaced, keeping him in line. Professionally, he was right not to make such an indecent proposal, but personally, he wanted her so bad walking away set his teeth on edge. The wanting choked him, built in his throat as he heard her start singing again. Bran stopped on the spot, rooted there with indecision, wanting to turn around and kiss her singing mouth. But he didn’t, and as the song ended, he went up to his office.


	11. See You Tomorrow

Nori’s trip the dentist put her further behind her work than Nori had anticipated. When lunch time came around, she was rolling through her work and not ready to leave yet for the day. With no one else on her floor to check in on, she slid like a wraith through empty halls as she went up to Bran’s office. The door stood ajar, and inside it was quiet inside save the soft taps of his typing. He apparently, did not sing as he worked, and she cringed at the thought of interrupting his silence. Nori felt too loud, too big for the space that he’d created. Steeling herself, she went in the open door, leaning up against the frame as he typed away. He’d heard her come in, she could tell by the way his expression changed but didn’t look up until he was done.

“Do you want lunch?” she asked.

“You’re staying? I expected a goodbye. Not done with your work yet?” he asked in return.

“I like the quiet. Besides,” she shrugged, “according to the website for the electric company, my power is still out.”

“There’s plenty of delivery,” Bran offered, but she wrinkled her nose at him.

“I don’t mind a walk, to stretch. Just tell me what you want.” As soon as she said it, a shadowed crossed over Bran’s face, as if he were going to say something that he’d been holding in, but then he smiled and the moment passed as if she’d imagined it.

They decided on a nearby deli and she went out. When she got to the counter there, they told her that the order had already been paid for over the phone. He hadn’t offered her money, but he was in no way going to let her pay for his lunch. Nori smiled all the way back to the Keep, even through the cold wind that hadn’t quite settled down from the night before.

"It's getting colder out," she announced as she burst into his office, pink in the cheeks and with two white paper bags of food in her hands.

Even the tops of her ears were colored from the cold and she shivered as she took her coat off. For a second she let her arms hug herself, just to be warm. Bran watched, silent as ever, with a hard stare, that she couldn’t figure out if it held interest or if that was the way he looked at everyone. Sometimes she thought he returned her feelings, but in the next moment he was as acidic and cold as ever. She sat down on his couch without invitation, setting the food out in front of her after taking off her coat. 

The office smelled like him, like the sunlight streaming in from both windows, the warmth of worn leather and something soapy and clean smelling with a slight hint of citrus. She'd noticed the smell before, but with people going in and out of his office all the time, she'd never given it much thought. Now she knew it was him, that alluring mixture of scents wasn't likely to be as potent when he wasn't in the room, the citrus smell probably his aftershave. It made Nori want to nuzzle his neck and see how it smelled. When she’d taken a seat, she sat on the couch furthest from his desk purposely so he'd have to join her if he wanted his food. He obliged her, coming out from behind his desk to sit with her.

"You've got a good voice," Bran commented as they ate and she gave an undignified snort in response.

"I'm usually off-key,” Nori admitted.

They ate and talked. He asked her about her father, mentioned reading his biography and Nori spoke a great deal about working on the book and her life. She'd gone to school in Highever when she'd been in Ferelden, the wealthy teyrnir in the north. The branch of the University there is one of the most highly regarded in Ferelden, but Nori described it without pretension. She watched him as he talked, drawn out of his usual discomfort around her. Bran was less self-conscious, more open as she asked about his life, the tension between them broken for the moment. Nori watched him move his hands as he talked, impassioned and descriptive, heard the husky laughter he hardly ever graced anyone with, watched him loosen his tie as they spent more time together.

The whole of the afternoon passed without either leaving the office. Nori made no motion to go back to her desk to work and Bran didn't want her to leave. They only stopped talking when his phone rang, the car outside waiting for him. He looked over at her when he hung up his phone, her face was still friendly, open, with a slight smile as she gathered up the remains of their take out and threw them out. She pushed her hair behind one ear as she had many times that afternoon, the long curls had become slightly looser but otherwise were just as they had been when he'd stumbled upon her in her office as she created them. The navy blazer she wore over her white shirt had a flare around her hips and her boots were a brandy color. She looked so at ease as they spoke, he almost forgot they were supposed to be working.

“My car is downstairs. I am meeting my son for dinner,” he said as he got up and put his suit jacket back on. He was quiet for a second before asking, “would you like to join us?” He didn’t look at her as he asked, but she got the feeling he was watching her anyway. Bran straightened his tie as he waited for her answer.

“Oh no, I shouldn’t intrude. Besides, I want to wrap up what I was doing before I leave.” Bran’s son was younger than Carver, but she remembered him. She couldn’t imagine a more awkward dinner.

“Then you and I will should dinner another time,” he said.

Nori smiled at him “I’d like that,” she said. A flush accompanied the words and she was grateful for the bloom of the setting sun outside the window, washing their surroundings in color and hiding the blush in her cheeks.

“I don’t like the thought of you walking home alone. Can I at least drop you off?” Bran asked as he got briefcase together.

"I'm not leaving yet," she said shaking her head.

"Don't walk home," he told her, and it surprised her to hear the concern in the command. 

"I won't. I think I'll call my mother and go there."

"I enjoyed our talk." Bran said, finally, putting on his coat. She gathered her own coat and bag and stood up.

"As did I. Have a good night, Bran." she said, smiling at him. He caught her arm as she tried to leave, and she stood there transfixed by the dark amber of his eyes.

“Goodnight, Nori,” he said, his voice brisk and businesslike. He let her go and she heard him locking the door to his office behind her. She wondered if he’d need to come in tomorrow just to catch up on all the work they’d missed by spending the afternoon talking.

Nori went home with her mother that night, the power was back on her apartment but she wanted the company. She thought of Bran as she curled into the guest bed that night after dinner with her family. Why hadn’t he kissed her? That last moment between them replayed in her head until she fell asleep, but she found no answers.

#

Bran did have to work on Sunday after spending his afternoon talking to Nori, but he’d planned on working Sunday anyway. He was sadly, alone in the building, save for the cleaners that came to do the specialized work -- in this case, carpet and window cleaning -- but Bran closed his door on their noise. They were a damn sight less welcome than Nori, but he supposed that unlike him, she had things to do with her weekend. He left at lunch, so his office could be cleaned, and went back to his townhouse, at loose ends until he made himself sit down and organize his camera equipment. He applied himself heartily to the task, trying to drown out all thoughts of her.

Back in the office the next week, she and Bran shot each other shy smiles, closer after their afternoon of conversation. If he'd had trouble getting her out of his head before, he was well past that point now. Nothing short of an exorcism could get rid of his thoughts; everything turned into Nori. By the end of the week, he'd grown weary of Ruvena sending him back items that he'd made mistakes on. Bran's temper was running short and he couldn't be bothered to hide his impatience. Every spare moment, he thought of her and how close she'd been when she sat on his couch. If he’d taken her in his arms, he was certain she would have reciprocated, but then, where would that leave them?

Just the thought of her warm body so close to his made him dizzy with need. She'd been giving him these adorable smiles, the welcoming kind that anyone relished seeing on the face of someone they were interested in. She was turning his brain to mush and making him confused. He was always in control, always knew his next step, but she'd changed everything and made him feel like a gawky teenager again. Bran paced around his office, the dim sunlight of the afternoon dying outside. The cooler days were ending earlier, and he’d begun watching the sunsets in his office, but today he turned away from the luminous sky. Making a decision he’d been thinking about all week he walked out, his pace furious and steel in his face. Ruvena watched with wary interest as he strode by her desk.

"Is she in there?" he asked Brennan when he got outside of Nori's office. He spoke in a barely audible whisper, which appeared to alarm Brennan. She took a step back from him before answering.

"Yes messere."

Without further delay, he stalked the last few paces to Nori's office and closed the solid wood door behind him. It fell shut near silently, and Nori looked up from her computer at him. She stood up behind her desk as the lock clicked on her door. 

"Nori," Bran said. His eyes blazed as she looked up at him.

"What's wrong?" She stood up behind her desk, worry crossing her face as Bran closed the distance between them.

"I wanted.” Bran stopped, mere inches from her. The fury that had propelled him to her was burnt out, gone, and he hesitated, just for one moment. “I’m going to kiss you,” he said, smirking at her.

“By all means,” Nori replied, the last word muttered against his lips as he swept her into a hard kiss.

It was fierce and hungry, his mouth pressed against hers with an urgency that clouded all of her thoughts with a dark haze, making her knees quake. She wrapped her arms around him and he responded with vigor, pulling her closer to him, thrusting his tongue deeper into her mouth. Her body was flush against his, her warm, sweet curves pressed up to him and all at once, Bran was startlingly, painfully hard. Clever hands pulled at him, threading through his hair, drawing him further into a kiss he never wanted to stop. She felt his hardness against her thigh and she caressed it with a free hand, earning a groan from him.

Bran could feel her turning to molten honey under his hands, he could feel her crumpling into his kiss. He put a hand up her sweater, expecting to meet resistance but instead all he heard was her soft sigh as she leaned back to let him kiss her neck. A hand left his hair as she steadied herself on the end of the desk. She wanted him as much as he'd wanted her. The thought was almost too much for him as his tongue swept across hers, hands lifting her sweater, cupping the warm heft of her breasts. Bran flicked his thumb over the end of one, feeling it harden beneath the soft confines of lace. Maker, it felt good to touch her, to feel her sigh as he suckled at her neck. This was not at all what he intended, but Bran leaned down to kiss the soft skin of her chest, to run his tongue over the full, rounded top of her breast. He tasted wool and perfume and skin, and he kept on kissing, her hand kneading him through the front of his trousers.

The phone on her desk rang. It had to be the phone, if he was in here, Brennan would allow no one to interrupt, but she would call. Nori shifted underneath him, pulling away from his eager, questing kisses to pick up the phone. She didn’t leave his embrace however, and Bran kept his hand on her breast his thumb idly going round and round the nipple he’d teased to hardness. 

“Hawke,” she said, only betrayed by her barely noticeable breathlessness as she picked up the phone. “Okay. Yeah. Give me a few more minutes, we still need to sort something out,” Nori said, and hung up the phone. She turned back and gave him a quick, hard kiss on the lips, then pulled her sweater back down.

“There’s a queue forming outside of my office,” she explained.

“I’ll go,” Bran said, and she didn’t look at him as she nodded. He wasn’t sure if she was upset about what happened, or whether she didn’t want him to leave. 

She righted her sweater and smoothed her skirt, running her flat palms over them. Bran shot his cuffs and straightened his tie, wiping at his lips to make sure that their kiss had left no trace. She turned toward him, as if to speak, but didn’t say anything. Bran nodded at her before opening the door.

“Nori,” he said, and swept out of it. There was an analyst standing outside, waiting near Brennan’s desk. He nodded at Brennan as he passed and the man bustled into her office, holding out the folder of paper he carried.

"I'm sorry Hawke, but this is the copy that just came from the Assembly." Bran heard the words, floating out of the open door of Nori’s office and somehow they snapped him from the fog that had been over him since he’d come for her. Whatever he felt, it was still the middle of a workday. They had things to do. He couldn’t be caught pants down in her office just because he was fool enough to let his desires overwhelm him.

When he slammed the door to his own office, Ruvena wasn't surprised. He'd been acting off all day. Bran sat back down behind his computer, determined to master himself for the rest of the day. His hands shook as he started to open up his email, to figure out just how much work he’d missed by daydreaming.

#

Nori went up to his office when she was done dealing with the Assembly that seemed intent on creating more work for her, hoping that she could repair the damage she had inadvertently inflicted. That kiss -- it was one thing to know Bran had feelings for her beyond flirting, and quite another to have him kiss her like that. Everything she’d ever imagined had been left in the dust by the intensity and need in that too quick interlude. If they hadn't been interrupted, Nori felt herself flush at the welcome thought of Bran bending her over her desk.

But when Nori got to his office, the door was closed and the office was dark behind it. Nori turned on her heel to give Ruvena a questioning look.

"He was leaving for a meeting, but he had to stop and ask the consul something. You might still catch him," Ruvena said.

Nori swore and turned around, then, automatically looked over the railing to see if she could spot him downstairs. Her hope that he might still be in the consul’s office talking was dashed when she found herself watching the top of Bran's distinctive head cross the lobby. She ran for it, hoping to make her way down the stairs and across the lobby before he left for whatever meeting he had to attend.

"What's on fire?" Brennan asked her as she sped by.

"Bran," Nori gasped as she ran down the stairs.

"Maker, Andraste and Maferath, just send him a frickin email," Brennan said.

Nori didn't catch her comment and said a silent thanks that she was wearing flat shoes today. When she pushed open the doors to the lobby, she shouted his name, stopping him as he got into the waiting car. The door stayed open, and she said another in a long line of silent thanks. He’d heard her and she ran towards the car, barreling into him seated just inside the open door.

They were locked in another kiss before he realized what was happening. She was nearly on top of him as she kissed him hard. Then she pulled away as suddenly as the kiss had started. It had to be a quick kiss, anyone else coming out of the Keep might see them, but he had to know their earlier encounter was just the beginning. Interruption or no, they had plenty more to say, even if they didn’t have time tonight. Bran was giving her a dazed, soft look that was so unlike his usual, narrow-eyed cynicism. In the rearview, she caught a glimpse of his driver grinning at them from under his cap.

"See you tomorrow?" she asked hopefully. 

He nodded, speechless, eyes glassy and shining at her. There was something there, a undisguised happiness that filtered through, making Bran look younger, hopeful. Nori beamed at him before turning and sprinting away, back into the Keep. She didn’t trust herself to stay outside, because she could easily get in that car. Instead she went back to her office, closed the door and leaned against it, her face split with a huge grin.


	12. That Juniper Taste

It grew cold quickly as the week went on. Nori was out of work with a terrible cold for a few days, no doubt picked up during her habit of walking all around town. Bran sent her emails but she'd only sent one back before resuming work. She'd come back to work on Monday, and they'd had no time alone as she caught up on her work. At the end of the week she stood and looked out of her window watching as the snow came down outside the snow in huge, wet flakes, the only things visible in the darkness that blanketed the city. Nori was exhausted from the work she'd missed while at home recovering.

She felt better now, but things with Bran were off-kilter. He seemed to have reverted to being unsure and she didn't know how to dissolve the awkward barrier that had come between the two. Whatever he felt now, she wasn't able to get that kiss out of her head and it was featured in more than a few of her daydreams. Part of her wished that he'd come stomping back into her office for a replay, but outside of their weekly meeting, she'd barely seen him.

It was impossible to tell what time it was by looking outside, but Nori knew it must be late, she could no longer hear many people in the office. A glance at her computer told her that it was well after dinner time. She sighed. Mother would be upset that she missed dinner with them. Nori started to pack up her things, thinking that her work would have to wait.

"You aren't walking in this weather are you?" Bran was standing in her doorway with his coat and briefcase. She'd noticed that he'd started asking her that a lot recently, as the weather changed. It was hard to tell if it was an excuse to spend more time with her or just him being considerate. She hoped it was the former.

"No, I was supposed to go to my Mother's house for dinner. I was going to take a cab." Nori answered.

"My car is here. Would you like to ride with me?" He asked while putting on a pair of black leather gloves. His coat was charcoal grey and he had one a cream colored scarf. The monochromatic outerwear was especially appealing against his red hair.

"Sure. Thanks."

"It's out front now. I'll be waiting." He said to her and left her office. She winced slightly at his formality, but decided that it was better than not talking. Nori took off her high heels, choosing to wear the black, faux fur lined boots she'd brought for the weekend instead. She put her coat on and made sure to grab the weekend bag she'd packed for her trip to Mother's before turning off her light. The office was nearly empty, Brennan was long gone home for the weekend and it surprised her that she hadn't noticed everyone leaving sooner. She'd been so busy all day.

Bran watched Nori as she made her way out of the door carefully, the snow swirling around her in the wild wind. It was impossible not to see her, even through the haze of snow in her red coat. He'd noticed her, noticed her clothes and how much attention she put into her appearance. Truth be told, he'd have been hard-pressed not to pay attention to her but it took him much longer to realize that she was actually interested in him, not just flirting. No, he hadn't realized that until she'd nearly said it, calling him handsome at the fundraiser. In retrospect it was shameful how long it had taken him to deduce it.

She was wearing all black today, some skirt and sweater combination but her coat and bag were colorful. Over her shoulder was a bigger bag, obviously containing her things for a weekend visiting her mother. One look at the bag told him it was designer and he wondered if she'd bought it or if it had been a gift from her father. He knew from reading that biography that Malcolm Hawke spoiled all of his kids, but doted especially on the daughter that followed in his footsteps.

It was almost as if he enjoyed torturing himself, sitting next to her in a confined space. He told himself that it was because she couldn't walk home in this weather, but he really just wanted to be near her again and alone, away from the office. Age old insecurities plagued him, making him wonder if she even was interested in him or if she was just being charitable. Aside from their kiss, she hardly treated him any differently from the way she treated Varric. But he couldn't suppress his feelings for her any longer; she made his heart leap whenever she smiled at him and the memory of her kiss created an ache in him.

When Nori got to the waiting black town car, Bran was inside looking at his phone as if he hadn't just left his office. She settled in next to him, enjoying the preheated car, the light dusting of snow that had come in with her melted within seconds.

"Your mother lives in Old Hightown right?" Bran asked without looking up. He could feel her presence next to him, smell her perfume.

"Yes, and you've a brownstone overlooking the water. You're closer, so you get dropped off first." Something about him made her competitive that night, and she didn't want him to think she needed him to escort her home. He sighed and kept his eyes down on his phone.

The traffic was beyond awful due to the weather. Bran had been generous in letting her share his car, otherwise she probably have an hour long wait for a taxi, if not longer. Silence stretched between the two, becoming more awkward as they sat in stopped traffic. Nori hummed to herself quietly as Bran continued to ignore her in favor of his phone. She looked out of her window and saw the snowfall becoming heavier, feeling the increased chill as the temperature continued to drop. It would be all ice tomorrow, the slush and snow freezing over during the night.

"You have something in your hair." She'd glanced at Bran and saw something flicker in the light. She reached over without invitation, taking off the gold leather glove on her right hand and plucked a staple out of his hair.

"How in the Maker's name did you get a staple in your hair?" She asked him, giggling. He looked at the tiny metal pinched between her fingers and laughed as well.

"The hazards of working in an office I guess." He answered still smiling at her. Nori dropped the staple in her bag, trying not to let it fall on the floor.

Their shared laughter and physical closeness changed the atmosphere between them, and Nori almost sighed in relief. It felt more like it usually did between them, not this new formality that had sprung up since they'd kissed. She was sitting closer to Bran now, acutely aware of his body heat and his attention; he'd put away his phone finally. Her hand moved up towards his hair again, and she caught herself before she ran her fingers through it. As her hand descended, she touched the side of his face, almost caressing it, dragging a knuckle gently down the side.

He grabbed her hand in his gloved one and pulled it to his mouth, planting a kiss in her open palm. Nori closed the scant distance between the two of them in the backseat and kissed him, his warm lips slightly chapped beneath hers.

Surprisingly, he wasn't dominant in their kiss as he had been before in her office, but allowed her to choose their way. At first she was hesitant, unsure as she tasted his lips beneath hers. As her hands crept under his coat, feeling the concrete of his muscular chest beneath his clothes, she grew needier in response to him. His mouth slanted against hers, their tongues touching as the kiss grew. His arms wrapped around her and he brought her closer to him.

Nori was vaguely aware of the car still moving, of the traffic around them but nothing mattered except the fever he was creating with his kisses. Lights from the street and passing cars shone in through the windows, obscured by the snow falling. She could hear the traffic noises, feel the slush of snow beneath the tires but it was all a distant second to their kiss. He nibbled at her earlobe and was kissing her neck, sucking gently at the delicate skin and she let a tiny moan escape her parted lips. Bran pulled away as the car slowed to a stop and sat there with the driving peaking at them in the rear view mirror.

"Excuse me messere, but we've reached your house." The driver looked reluctant to say anything.

"Thank you." Bran said as he extracted himself from her. He looked at her questioningly but didn't voice his request.

"Just the one stop." Nori said to the driver, answering Bran's question. They exited the car, and he took her overnight bag from her hands and she followed him up the stairs in front of the handsome tan brick townhouse.

She took off her snow-soaked coat and boots, warming up in the temperate entryway. Flicking on a light switch, Bran led her out of the narrow foyer and into his living room. The room had a coordinated color palette in a mix of deep reds and browns, the effect startlingly masculine and somewhat autumnal. Nori suspected the help of an interior decorator, probably updating his house periodically after his divorce.

"Would you like a drink?" Bran asked as she sat on a dark brown leather couch. He had taken off his suit jacket and tie, the collar of his shirt unbuttoned. The azure color of his shirt contrasted nicely with his skin, his cheeks were still tinged with pink from their brief foray into the cold air.

"G and T?" Nori asked. He nodded, approving of her choice. He busied himself making her drink, glad to have something to do with his hands. He was nervous now that she was here.

Decorating the room were a multitude of different paintings, photographs, objet d'art and framed sketches. Nori knew little of art, but could tell an impressive collection when she saw one. She got up from the leather couch, looking around at the room as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. Most of the paintings were abstract, vast swaths of rich color without a central focus in contrast to the photographs, often sharp with hard colors. She didn't hear Bran approach her, his bare feet making no noise on the mahogany hardwood floors. He put his hand on her hip, coming up behind her and offering her the drink in his other hand. When she accepted it, he wrapped both arms around her waist while she continued to stare at a photograph on the wall.

"I took that in Nevarra." He said into her ear, his chin resting on her shoulder. She could feel the heat of him through her clothes. Just knowing he was there was arousing her, his protective arms slowing her thoughts.

"You took it?" Her tone displayed her shock at the revelation. She felt him smile as he went on.

"I used to want to be a photographer. When I was younger."

"What changed?"

"I got married when I was nineteen. Jason was born when I was twenty-one. I didn't have a chance to really even get into it - I had a family. Politics was more...convenient and lucrative than an uncertain career in art."

"Did you pick it up again after your divorce?" Nori asked quietly as the fizzy tonic water in her drink tickled her nose. The drink was good; he'd even added a lime wedge.

"Not precisely. Travel is part of the job and I didn't waste my trips. I have hundreds of pictures from over the years."

"What about the paintings? You didn't do those too did you?" She asked and he chuckled.

"Sadly, I'm not that talented. The paintings I collect from galleries and shows from here and abroad. I'd have a much nicer house if I didn't own so much art."

"I think your house is lovely." Nori laughed before adding. "You should see my apartment."

"What's wrong with your apartment?" He asked as she sipped her drink. Bran wanted to slip his hands under her skirt and dive straight into her depths, watch her buck against his fingers. The thought was causing him a painful erection, he didn't know how much more small talk he could take.

"Nothing. I just mostly have books and video games. No impressive art collection."

"You play video games?"

"All the time. Online even. I have a headset where I administer the biggest shit-talkings you've ever heard to random strangers." She confessed, and she felt his husky laughter in her ear the sound sending want through her in floods.

Nori turned to face him, the glass in her hand near empty. She didn't remember drinking all of it and blamed it on nerves and his nearness. When she kissed him, he could taste the lime and tonic from her drink, along with the tiniest hint of pine trees - that juniper taste of the gin. He took what remained of the drink from her hand, setting it on a waiting coaster on his coffee table. Burying his face in her neck, he breathed a kiss there before his mouth found hers again. She felt the heat rising between them as his open palm pressed on her back, pushing her into him as they shared a series of savage kisses.

"Would you like to go upstairs?" He asked considerately, but he knew she did from the searing heat of their kisses. As an answer she put her hand in his, letting him lead her up to his bedroom.


	13. Pleasantly Shocked

His bedroom was a large room with a king sized bed with an oversized painting on canvas hanging over the headboard. The touch of the decorator was in here too, for each side of the bed had a lamp and nightstand that matched the console that housed the television. With a touch, he turned on one of the lamps.

Nori shook her hair out of the loose knot she'd had it in all day letting her long, black hair spill past her shoulders. Bran kissed her, more urgent than their kiss downstairs and she unbuttoned his shirt. When he backed away to take off his unfastened shirt, she pulled off her sweater to reveal a black camisole over her bra. Nori unzipped her skirt and pushed it down, letting it pool at her feet.

"Is that what you always wear under those skirts?" Bran asked. He was staring at Nori's garter belt, holding up the lace topped stockings she wore.

"Yes. I hate the way regular nylons roll down."

"I'll never get any work done knowing that now." His exasperation was tinged with enough sincerity to tell her he wasn't kidding.

"Like you got any work done before wondering about what was under my skirts."

"True, very true." He agreed as her camisole joined the pile of clothes on the floor that now included his pants and boxers.

Bran was all lean muscle under his clothes, his chest hair was the same color as his goatee with a smattering of freckles across his upper arms. Nori walked towards him and he pulled her onto the bed on top of him. He unfastened her bra, letting it fall next to the bed. The generous size of her breasts was a most welcome surprise. Bran loved her hips and the towers of her curvy legs, noting only that her breasts were a good size and pert underneath her clothes. They hadn't really merited much thought before, but now, he placed a hand around one and cupped it, excited by the unexpected heft of it.

He was nude and she looked at him as he began unhooking her garters from her stockings. That afternoon they'd spent together, he mentioned that he played tennis and she could believe it looking at the excellent tone in his body. His fingers slid over the tops of her thighs as he methodically took unlatched her garter belt, grazing her wet panties. She moaned at his slight contact with her and shifted her hips upward, so that he could get the garters at the back of her thighs, bringing her closer to being naked beneath him.

Being this near to her was driving him insane; he would never know how he got all of the tiny hooks detached from her stockings. Instinct coursed through him and he felt himself sliding the garter and her panties down her legs. She started to roll a stocking down as well, but he stopped her, placing his hand over hers. There was no way he was letting her take those off. Just the sight of the black lace at the tops of her thighs made him want to hammer into her dripping sheath. One of his hands reached into his nightstand and located a condom, but he waited to put it on until the moment before he'd enter her.

Crawling back up towards her while kissing her stomach and the valley between her breasts, Bran brought his mouth back to hers and was none too gentle when they kissed again. It was urgent, passionate and rapacious, tongues darting back and forth. When they broke apart, she nipped at his jawline. He migrated to her chest, rolling the hard peak of her breast in his fingers before teasing it with the tip of his tongue. Nori inhaled sharply and moaned as he nibbled at it before taking it all in his mouth and suckling at the hard peak. Bran's hand wandered lower while his mouth was busy and delved between her legs. His fingers parted the slick folds, easily finding her pearl and circling a finger around it, watching her shake in response to his touch.

He knew that he could probably get her off right now, just using his hand. While the prospect appealed to him, he wanted to taste her. Moving back down her body, he kissed her stomach again as he went by it and dropped his head between her legs. His fingers pushed into her slick tightness and she sighed under him, finding a small relief in his fingers. Bran alternately lapped and suckled at her, his fingers pumping in and out frantically. Nori was responsive, flexing against his fingers as he moved and he brought her to orgasm in short order.

If he'd been expecting his name to be uttered as she came, he was wrong. Her climax shook her whole body, a force of pleasure and she made a guttural, primal sound as she came; the sound of utter relief. He found it more sexy than if she'd been screaming his name. Bran pulled away from her, putting on his condom before giving her some humid kisses as he slid inside of her, thrusting slowly as he pushed himself all the way into her.

Bran gave a full bodied shiver as he slid into her, pressing past the gentle yielding that accompanied the first thrust. It had been a good amount of time since he'd been with someone, long enough that it was overwhelming his senses. The delicious friction of her body closing in around his made him dizzy, but then when he looked down into her brown eyes and saw Nori, he nearly lost all control. For months she'd stayed in his mind and he wondered if he'd ever get anywhere with her, not daring to think about this. Now she was beneath him, moaning softly as he increased his speed. Bran had to think of everything else so he didn't finish too soon.

They moved well together, as they had when they danced that night at the gala. He led, but she was intuitive and creative, her hips ground against his in a circular motion as he thrust in and out of her. Bran felt her stocking legs wrap around him, and the strange sensation of having the sheer material rub against his back and ass made him harder. Nori was panting slightly underneath him and could feel her walls tightening around his cock. His lean hips surged into her and he hit deep inside of her as they changed position with her on top.

Bran got an eyeful of her as she moved astride his waist, and he watched her breasts bounce in time with the rhythm of her hips. The hungry, electric feeling he got from being buried deep between her legs made the urgency of his release more apparent and he slammed her down onto his cock, making her shout in surprise. She fell towards him, increasing her speed as she did, her movements less grand but quicker and rougher. He heard himself moaning, whispering to her as he got closer and when he felt her body tighten with her second orgasm, his cock throbbed violently and he gave in to his own release.

Nori was still quaking with the remnants of her second release as she kissed Bran. He was sweating and breathing heavily underneath her, but he leaned into her lazy kiss as he thrust one last time, enjoying the heat between her thighs. She rolled off to one side and he was reluctantly withdrawn from her wetness.

"I need to..." He finally said to her when he'd caught his breath.

"Yeah." Nori watched him get up and pad across the room to a door she assumed led to the bathroom. She lay back on the pillow, her hair fanning out behind her head and closed her eyes. Her stocking clad legs fell to one side.

When he reentered the room, he looked at her for a moment, the dim light highlighting the curves of her body. She was laying on her back, her eyes closed and wearing only the stockings. He felt his cock give a wistful twitch at the sight, if he'd had her ten years ago, he could give her another go right now. Bran smirked at his own presumption; he may have been thirty-one ten years ago but she'd been eighteen and her father would have likely killed him for going near her. He got back into the bed, slipping his arms around her and she folded into him. Nori reached up to Bran's face and pressed her lips to his, the gentle kiss more like a caress than the fevered kisses they'd shared earlier.

"Are you hungry?" Bran asked eventually her.

"I could eat. What time is it?" She asked him.

"Late." He replied. "And it's still snowing."

"Where are we going to get dinner from then?"

"I _can_ cook you know." Bran said, sounding a little miffed at her.

"Color me surprised. Could you get me my overnight bag? It's still downstairs." Bran nodded, and kissed her again.

He headed downstairs in a new pair of boxer shorts, coming back with her bag and she took it gratefully, retreating into the bathroom to take off her stockings. It was one of the biggest bathrooms she'd ever seen, with a separate glass shower stall and jetted bathtub. Nori washed her face in one of the two sinks and looked around the huge space while rooting around her bag for her pajamas. There was a small room past the shower where the toilet was located along with a phone. She made a mental note to ask Bran never to call her from that phone.

When she emerged he was sitting at his desk, now wearing flannel pants and checking his email. She had on what she would have worn at her mother's house, a plain tank top and floral print pants. While in the bathroom she'd combed out her hair and it hung down straight, the dark locks spilling past her shoulders.

"What's for dinner?" Nori asked, running one hand along his bare shoulders as she came up behind him. He returned her caress with a smile as he turned to face her.

"Let's go and see what's in the kitchen." She followed him downstairs and sat on one of the bar stools pulled up to his kitchen island.

The kitchen was on the smaller side, but filled with high-end appliances. It had off-white cabinets and tile backsplash in the same shade, but the countertops were butcher block wood stained mahogany like the floors in the other rooms. Beneath her bare feet the floor was a light brown stone floor that matched the upstairs bath. It had some sort of heat underneath it, warming her feet as she walked across it.

Bran went through a door off to one side of the kitchen and came out pulling a shirt down over his head. She suspected he'd had to go to the laundry to find a clean t-shirt and her grin widened at how boyish it made him seem. He rummaged through the cabinets as she excused herself and ran back into the living room to dig her mobile phone out of her purse. She'd have to call her mom.

"Sorry Mother, it got late and snowy."

"It's alright Nori, I was just getting worried when I didn't hear from you. Will you come tomorrow? Bethany's bringing that lovely Keran she's been seeing."

"Can I bring someone?"

"Certainly!" Leandra was beyond welcoming to anyone her children dated. She hadn't even known that Nori was seeing someone, but her eldest daughter rarely shared such information with her.

"I'll see you and your friend tomorrow then. Love you and goodnight."

"Love you too Norina. Goodnight dear."

Nori walked back into the kitchen, where Bran had his back to her and was actually chopping something. She went over to stand next to him, wondering what he was making.

"Hey." She said to him.

"Hey."

"Do you want to come with me to my mother's for dinner tomorrow is or that too much like we're a real couple?"

She'd meant it to come out sounding nonchalant, but instead it seemed like a challenge. Her uncertainty came out in the statement, making her voice sound harsh and demanding. Bran stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her.

"A real couple?" His raised eyebrow nearly reached his hairline.

"I'd understand it if you didn't want to start dating."

"Why wouldn't I want to date you?"

"How should I know what you want?" Nori asked.

"This is why I hate arguing with other lawyers." Bran said. For a moment he just looked at her, a long, measuring look. He rubbed his face with his palm in a tired, distracted way as he formulated a suitable answer.

"I'd like nothing better than to date you and frankly I'm still pleasantly shocked that you slept with me. Does that suffice?" Pleasantly shocked didn't begin to cover the party that was going on in his mind at that moment, but Bran kept that to himself.

"I'm not a lawyer." Nori quipped cheekily.

"You might as well be, you're just as argumentative as any I've worked with. You're having an omelet because I have eggs, cheese, peppers and onions."

"Okay."

"Okay what?"

"To all of it, the dating and the omelet. Will you come with me to my mother's house for dinner tomorrow oh new boyfriend of mine?"

"It's been a long time since someone's called me their boyfriend."

"Get used to it."

"Yes, I'll go. Hand me that pepper." He smiled as he pointed at a green pepper located closer to her on the countertop. She placed it near his cutting board, watching him neatly chop up vegetables, letting the happy feeling spreading through her run to her toes.


	14. Dinner with the Hawkes

Leandra wasn't expecting to see Bran with her daughter when she opened the door but the two of them were very much together on her doorstep. Nori had her arm threaded through the crook of his, and she had that wild eyed look that was always a dead giveaway that she'd been kissing some boy. She took the shock in stride, welcoming him to her home as she tried to recall what she knew about him. He was younger than her, but not young enough to be with her daughter. He had an ex-wife and a child, she knew that much. During the course of his job, she'd seen him on television a few times with the Viscount, but she'd never paid him much attention. Carver flared outright at the man, since he had been friends with his son Jason in school.

Nori introduced him to everyone, not surprised to see Merrill, Carver's girlfriend and Beth's boyfriend Keran. He and Beth had started dating a right before Nori moved back to Kirkwall but she had only met him once before. He was a sweet blond guy who worked part time as a messenger while he went to school for economics.

Merrill was another thing altogether. Nori had tried to explain her eccentricities to Bran before they'd went in, to no avail.

"Merrill is a genius, but she's a little out there." Nori said to him, thinking of the time Merrill had gotten stuck in a pair of pants by putting both legs through the same hole.

"I see."

"No, you don't. She's cute, working on a doctorate in biology or something like that, but oh Andraste, I cannot believe I am telling you this. Once she taped herself in a box for Carver to open but he didn't notice it when he came in, so she fell asleep in there."

Bran roared with laughter.

"No, stop laughing, it wasn't meant to be funny." Nori slapped his arm playfully but she couldn't help it, she joined in with his laughter. She'd kissed his laughing face just before her mother had opened the door to find the two of them.

"So how long have you been sleeping with my sister?" Carver asked Bran, after swallowing a mouthful of bread. His elbow was resting on the table and he was looking daggers at Bran across the table, seated at Nori's right. He was red in the face and sounded more than a little angry.

"Carver!" Nori, Leandra, Bethany and Merrill all shouted at once.

"I'm sorry." Nori apologized in an undertone, squeezing Bran's hand under the table. The look he wore was reminiscent of the ones she'd seen so often at work, a practiced look of slightly amused disdain.

"I just thought I'd get it out in the open since everyone else was thinking it." Carver said.

"Don't be rude Carver." Merrill admonished. He looked slightly chastened at her words but was waiting for an answer.

"Yes Carver, don't be rude to our guest. You must forgive my son, I'm sure he meant no offense." Leandra said in a huff, giving Carver an embarrassed glare that he ignored.

"It's fine." Bran said, looking around at all of them. "It must be a shock to you all. We haven't been seeing each other for very long - it's new." The simplicity of his answer seemed to deflate Carver, who seemed to be expecting an impassioned defense from either Bran or Nori. He looked over at his sister, but she was smiling mawkishly up at her old new boyfriend.

"Well it's very nice to meet you." Merrill said from down the table as she gave him a welcoming smile.

"Thank you Merrill." Bran wasn't all that insulted by Carver; he could understand his defensiveness. He was competing with Nori but also protective of her. Bran looked over at Nori sitting at the head of the table, opposite her mother and realized that no matter what Carver did, if he kept trying to compete with Nori, he'd always wind up losing. She'd already claimed her role, taking her father's seat at the dinner table. He'd have to find his own way.

After the initial hiccup, dinner went well enough, with Nori engaging Keran in a deep discussion about Kirkwall's economic state and Merrill making a sculpture of her mashed potatoes. Carver was so smitten with Merrill, he didn't notice the distaste with which their mother wrinkled her nose as she watched the petite scientist reform her side dish into art. Nori was sure Bran saw Merrill's creation as well, whenever he looked down the table she saw him smother his laughter as Merrill worked.

Bethany engaged Bran in conversation across the table, asking about his work. Eventually everyone got in on the conversation, for all of the Hawkes were familiar with politics. Leandra warmed up to Bran as he told anecdotes about the previous Viscount of Kirkwall, Perrin Threnhold whom he had worked with briefly before his retirement. He watched Nori holding court with her family, her smile came easily and her hand would creep to his knee under the table, dangerously close to his arousal. Her touch felt sweet and illicit at the same time.

After Nori and Bran left, Leandra watched them through the window. Bethany joined her and watched from her side. They saw a playful tussle between the two, with Bran pulling her into a hug as they walked from the house. Beth saw the snow falling and his gloved fingers pushing Nori's hair out of the way as he leaned in for a kiss before they walked out of sight.

"Well I don't like it. That's Jason's dad, he's too old for her." Carver said from behind his sister. He'd come up silently and watched them leaving as well.

"He's certainly very taken with her." Bethany offered diplomatically.

"She's happy. Let her be." Leandra said sighing. Her mother was still conflicted about the much older man her daughter had brought home tonight, but there was no denying the happiness she saw within Nori. He was charming, funny and certainly an attractive man; she had no question as to why her daughter would be taken with him. She worried about Nori more than the twins, because she was so often alone. Bran wouldn't have been her first choice but he obviously cared for Nori. It was enough for now.

"Aside from Carver trying to corner you, how was the night?" They were walking back to his parked car now, since Old Hightown had a no vehicle rule, they'd parked a little ways away in a lot. Bran laughed softly at the mention of her brother.

"Your brother didn't rattle me. I thought it would be overwhelming to be honest, but it wasn't at all. I had a good time. It was nice to see you with your family. If you're wondering though, I think you're the most like your father out of all of them."

He brushed the newly fallen snow off his car as she waited in it, shivering against the cold leather seats. When he got in she grabbed his hands, forcing them to warm up between hers.

"How long have you wanted to sleep with me?" She asked out of nowhere.

"In a vague way since the second time we talked at work. The day I asked you about your shoes. Specifically since the time you came into my office ranting about Sebastian and his 'Growing up Vael' speeches."

"What took you so long?" He took his hands out of hers and started driving, slowly exiting the parking lot. Bran thought for a moment before he answered.

"I don't know." He finally confessed. "Insecurity maybe. We work together, and that's always complicated. I wasn't even sure you wanted to even after we kissed."

She nodded, trying to understand but not really getting it. She'd never know how true his statement in his kitchen the night before had been. He was still beyond pleasantly shocked that she'd slept with him and he never, ever thought she'd date him. It was like winning the damn lottery.

"Do you want to come in for a moment?" Nori asked when they reached her apartment. Bran wanted to see where she lived and parked his car in the guest parking lot. Bran gathered Nori's bags from the backseat, taking her clothes and work up to the apartment. He had a moment of mild surprise when she pressed the button marked PH in the elevator, taking them to the penthouse. She noticed his look and shrugged.

"It was Varric's doing." It was just another apartment to her, it didn't seem very notable. Varric's involvement explained a lot. Bran remembered him investing in some property, although he hadn't remember it being this one.

It was a grand, spacious, modern loft with a whole wall of windows. Setting her bags down, he moved towards the window, taking in the amazing view of Kirkwall. It faced the harbor, and he looked down at the crisscrossing lights of the old maze of streets that led out to the docks. Kirkwall was so pretty in the darkness, the scars where it had been rebuilt after many battles no longer visible under the snow that blanketed the city.

Bran turned around and looked back at her apartment after a moment, lots of clean lines and angles with charcoal grey stained wood floors. She had a black leather couch and chair, an entertainment center and glass coffee table, but the room was dominated by the three large beech wood bookcases filled with books. There was a desk with a computer, and a kitchen space that made miniscule look large. He doubted that she used it to cook. She had a black and white photo on her wall of a ballerina and family photos. All of her furniture seemed to be either black or beige, which seemed to him to be at odds with her vibrant personality.

"You like the ballet?" He asked. It was an unexpected interest, she'd never mentioned going to a performance before.

"I used to dance."

"Is that you?" Bran looked at the picture again, recognizing Nori's face and form in the black leotard.

"Yes. That was taken about eight years ago on stage at a clinic."

"Why'd you stop?"

"I didn't even start until I was in college, so it was never serious, always just for fun. Besides I don't have the build for a ballerina and I certainly don't have the dedication. But I liked to pretend that I was going to run off and join the Royal Ferelden Ballet if this whole political dynasty thing didn't work out."

"The Royal Ferelden Ballet?"

"It's easier to get into than the Orlesian one." She said over her shoulder as they walked up to her bedroom.

Upstairs was her bedroom loft, which had the same clean aesthetic as the floor below, but up here was her closet, the place where she put her investments. Nori opened the door with a flourish, turning on the overhead light so he could take it all in. There were boxes and bags with designer labels and the names of high-end stores on all of them, piled to the ceiling on shelves that lined the narrow back wall. Each side of her walk in closet had two long bars that were stuffed with hangers of clothes. He spotted jewelry boxes in there, wooden boxes perched on the shelves with her shoes and he opened one to find a treasure chest of organized sparkles winking up at him in the dim light. The room was stuffed but he had a feeling she knew where everything was without searching.

"I think you should move your bed into the closet and your clothes out here." Bran said taking it all in.

"If I could fit the bed in, I would." She said seriously.

He kissed her, noting how cold her apartment was, probably because of the giant window wall and high ceilings. It was his intention to leave and go home for the night, although his reasoning behind leaving was crumbling fast as he looked at her bed.

"Are you working tomorrow?" She asked him.

"In the morning. Do you want to have lunch with me?"

"I'd like that."

"I'll call you." Bran kissed her again at her door and she watched him walk down the hallway. Halfway to the elevator he turned around.

"Answer something for me." He said to her walking back towards her.

"Anything."

"Why am I leaving?"

"Don't leave." The plea in her whispered words was clear and it was more than enough to make him turn around and head back towards her. His lips smothered hers as he kissed her savagely, neediness growing between the two of them. Bran thought that he would never, ever get enough of her kisses and hearing the soft sighs that came with them as he broke their kiss momentarily. He edged back into her apartment, pressing Nori against the wall just inside the doorway as he kissed her again, the noise from the slamming door echoing down the hall he'd just left.


	15. We Only Run the Government

Varric was walking to his office, whistling to himself. He hated snow, but even he had to admit how pretty it was once it was shoveled out of his way. The white brilliance of the icicles was beautiful on a sunny morning as he looked at them from inside the warmth of a building. He walked by Nori's office, stopping to shoot the shit for a moment. She was happy today, much more so than usual. He made note of it but said nothing.

Later that morning he went to go see Bran and the man had the same buoyant, happy feeling he got from Nori, just on a Bran sort of level. He tried to shake it off as coincidence, but Friday night he'd seen them get into a car together. Varric went into Nori's office when he walked by again, shutting the door behind him.

"So tell me something." He said to her as she hung up the phone. "What's going on between you and Bran?"

"Damn that was quick." Nori laughed. "I thought we'd have at least a week."

"That man never smiles and today he's been positively sunny. It's scary."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Just me, messere."

"We're together finally. I think he's telling the Viscount today just to make sure. Take comfort in the fact that you were the first to figure it out."

"That's hardly a comfort. Give me a few details, just for posterity."

"Varric, if you want details, I suggest you go ask Bran."

"I can see that ending well, let me go ask my boss about his love life. Then he can have a good reason to fire me instead of all the usual ones."

"You'll get nothing out of me with your rugged good looks and charm. Get out, I have a conference call to take."

Varric resignedly slunk out of the office as her phone rang. Maybe he would try and get details out of Bran. Inspiration struck and Varric stopped in to see Bran after giving a revision for some upcoming remarks to the Viscount.

"So how are things Bran?" Varric stood lazily against the door of Bran's office.

Every time Varric went to Bran's office, it struck him just how much nicer it was than his. Bran had a corner office, with two sides of windows, several bookcases, a couch and two leather chairs in front of a desk that was much longer than Varric's. He also had a nicer chair, but Varric didn't want to quibble on such a minor detail.

"Just fine. Why are you in my office?"

"How's Nori?" Varric asked in a tone that just bordered on the cocky side of know-it-all. He watched Bran register what he'd said and the meaning underneath it. It was almost comical watching each part of his body grow tense as he tried to remain calm.

"So help me if you don't GET OUT OF MY OFFICE I am going to let Sebastian start the Chant of Light in yours." Bran's face was a mere shade away from matching his hair and he shot Varric a murderous glare. Varric took it in stride, giving him a smug look as he left the office.

Ruvena nearly dropped her chocolate milk in her lap as she heard the mad shout Bran gave. Varric sauntered by her desk casually right afterward, coming out of Bran's office and she wondered what he could have possibly said to make Bran _yell_. It had been such a peaceful day until now, she swore she'd actually seen him laughing this morning. Bran stomped out after him looking as if he'd been struck.

"I need to speak with the Viscount, is anyone in there?" He asked Elthina in a rush.

"Go on in."

"Excuse me, Excellency." Bran's adrenaline was slowing down now and he wanted to walk back out of the room, but he'd told Nori he'd handle this.

"I need to speak with you about something that happened this weekend." Bran wasn't at all sure he should start like this but if he didn't disclose when he'd started dating Nori, the Viscount was well within his rights to ask.

"What is it Bran?" Dumar sat back behind his desk, he knew what was coming but he had to let Bran say it so he could officially respond to it.

"Nori and I started seeing each other, but if it is going to be..."

"It's about time." The Viscount interrupted, smiling at Bran across the desk.

"What?"

"Haven't you two been dancing around each other since she got hired? It's been driving Sebastian insane. I'm pretty sure Varric had money on it."

"Oh." It was all he could manage in front of the Viscount, but in reality, he wondered if the whole office knew. They would never say anything to him - he could fire them all.

"It's perfectly okay that two of you are dating. She's not your direct report. Should the situation change, we'd have to review it. Is that all?"

"Yes, Your Excellency. Thank you."

"You two should come for dinner this weekend, Saemus will be home." Dumar threw out in an almost off-hand way. He'd been meaning to invite Bran to dinner again for ages.

"I'd like that. What day?"

"Saturday. I'll tell the boy you're coming. He'll be glad to see you again Bran." The Viscount turned away, going back to the work he'd been doing before Bran clomped into his office. When his Chief of Staff was gone the Viscount sent an email to Varric, trying to figure out who'd won the pool.

Bran went to Nori's office to tell her it was done and they'd be the office gossip for the next few weeks. Unavoidable but still not pleasant. When he got there he saw Varric grumbling as he retreated towards his own office.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Were you aware that there was a pool on how long it would take us to start dating?"

"Yes, the Viscount told me just now."

"Well, I demanded my share. Varric got to keep a cut of the profits and I demanded my percentage of said profits."

"How much was it?"

"Well, I _might_ have demanded more than I was due. You know since I'm the girl who's riding the boss and everyone knows it now. Anyway, the pool came out to be around four hundred sovereigns, of which Varric was keeping a quarter. I may now be in possession of that hundred sovereigns. Details are sketchy at best."

"Clever." He only uttered the one word, but he was almost proud of how quickly Nori worked.

"I take it if the Viscount told you about the pool, you've spoken with him."

"Yes. All is well." A relieved smile passed between the two of them. Nori cleared her throat to refocus their conversation before going on.

"Good. When are you taking me out to dinner?"

"Tomorrow if our schedules permit. You should take me out with your ill-gotten gains."

"I should but I won't. I am putting this and nine hundred other sovereigns towards a bag I want."

"You aren't serious, are you?" Bran had a small heart attack at the price she named. His shocked face made her break out in near hysterical laughter. When she composed herself she pulled her wallet out of the locked drawer of her desk and held it up.

"This wallet cost four hundred sovereigns. How could I carry that in a cheap purse?"

"For such a logical person, I don't understand how you get taken in by designer accessories." He looked at the wallet she held up and it was simply brown with a gold nameplate on it. It might have been leather, but he couldn't tell from across the room.

"You wound me!" She cried, but then shrugged, thinking about her real answer. "I just like nice things; everyone has to have a hobby. Mine is fashion. I haven't heard any complaints from you about my clothes yet." She lowered her voice and said "You stripped about two hundred sovereigns worth of underwear off me on Friday night."

He gave her that point; Nori was impeccably dressed and he couldn't truly say he spent any less on his clothes. She just seemed to have so many. Bran walked back to his office, wondering about how much money her overstuffed closet would be worth, and all that jewelry she wore was real, not to mention the shoes. She must spent her whole paycheck on clothes he surmised, and he hoped that Sebastian would give her a raise this year.

"Do you have a minute Nori?" Sebastian's tone was clipped and Nori guessed that he'd just found out about her and Bran.

"For you, I might even have five." Nori replied sweetly. Sebastian closed her door and fixed her with a serious look.

"As your superior and your mentor." Nori almost snorted at that, but held it in. "I have to question your judgement in getting involved with the Chief of Staff."

"Do you object?"

"I do. Given more time I think that you would find there are better candidates for your attentions than a divorced man."

"Objection noted." Nori said scathingly as she fumbled in her desk drawer, getting her mobile phone out without Sebastian noticing.

"I don't think you've given this enough thought Lady Hawke. You should really take the time to think about this choice of yours first."

"Are you casting aspersions on the character of the Chief of Staff, your boss and my lover?" Nori was incredulous.

"All I am advising is perhaps a little more thought given to that last role. Certainly you could find a more suitable man..." Her office phone rang, interrupting him. He got up as she picked up the call and left her office. She'd called herself just to get him to leave, but she was so angry now that she wanted to track Sebastian down, let him finish and sock him once in the face.

"Holy shit you look angry." Brennan was coming through the door with a stack of papers.

"Sebastian." Nori said, not needing to say much else.

"Well he'll get over himself soon enough. Don't take it personally otherwise you'll always be walking around here with your butt hurt."

"Maker, Brennan, I just love how you get straight to the point." Nori said giving her assistant a genuine smile.

"That's why they paired me with you, neither one of us deal in bullshit. Want to go out for a drink tonight?"

"Absolutely!" It was the first time Nori had been invited out to drink with anyone besides Varric. She wasn't seeing Bran until the next night, so it worked out well.

"Your supposed to go see the Viscount when you have a moment." Brennan told her and Nori got up, recognizing a summons when she heard one.

In the end the Viscount simply wanted her to work on clarifying some language that he didn't like in a policy that were going adopt. All through the meeting he threw her knowing smiles, telling her that she could always ask Bran for legal advice. Nori didn't even begin to know how to respond to being teased by the Viscount and she descended into flustered blushes and stammering until Viscount Dumar took pity on her.

When she left, she went down to see the legal counsel to help her and she spent the rest of the day working on her project. As she was getting ready to go out with Brennan her mobile rang showing her an almost forgotten number.

"Hello?"

"Change your knickers, because I'm in Kirkwall!" A familiar voice yelled into her ear.

"Isabela! Good timing, I was just about to go out for a drink with my assistant. Can you meet us at the Hanged Man?"

"See you there." Isabela clicked off and Nori smiled knowing that her flighty friend would be late.

Isabela was her roommate from her freshman year of college and the one who got her to drink until she puked, tried to highlight her naturally black hair blond (it came out orange and Leandra had sobbed when she came home for break), participate in all their rugby matches drunk, had disastrously kissed Nori in a crowded bar for free drinks, and together they'd crashed all the good parties. Nori was heartbroken when her friend hadn't come back sophomore year, citing Ferelden as too dull. They'd kept in touch over the years, as much as one could keep in touch with the constantly moving Isabela.

"Brennan, I'll be right back and then we can go." Nori wanted to see Bran before she left for the day. It was silly but seeing him made a giddy warmth surge through her. They wouldn't be able to get together tonight because of a late meeting so she at least wanted to say goodnight.

Ruvena wasn't at her desk when she knocked on his door and he grumbled at her to enter without looking up from his work. He didn't look up at her until he heard the door shut behind her.

"Maker, I'm sorry Nori, I didn't know it was you." He apologized.

"It's alright. I'm leaving, I just wanted to say goodnight." Bran came from around the desk and pushed her against the door as he kissed her. Her hands ran through his hair, threading her fingers through his thick tresses. She could feel him relaxing in her arms as they kissed.

"Goodnight." He said, backing away while he still could.

"Goodnight." Nori whispered wanting to do nothing but kiss him again. He moved back behind his desk, ignoring the urge to kiss her again. Nori turned to go but he spoke again, stopping her.

"We've been invited to have dinner with the Viscount and his son Saemus this weekend."

"We?"

"The invitation was issued to the two of us."

"Alrighty then. I guess I can make room for that."

"His Excellency will be so pleased that you can take a break from your busy schedule of video gaming."

"You sure are bitchy for someone that just got laid."

"Get out." He said playfully. She went back to meet Brennan and found some other assistants, Varric and Fenris waiting for her.

"Let's not get too drunk tonight." Varric said and Nori gave him a sidelong glance.

"I'm just shitting you. Let's all come to work hungover tomorrow!" He said and their motley group gave a cheer as they walked towards the two waiting cabs to take them to the Hanged Man, a bar in Old Lowtown.

"Yes." Fenris said in a dry tone. "We only run the government. What could possibly go wrong?"


	16. Marlowe Makes Lasagna

Isabela was already there when Nori arrived, and she realized she must have called her from the Hanged Man or one of the bars nearby. Old Lowtown was a revitalized historic area that still housed some of the older industrial plants that helped rebuild Kirkwall in the past. The crowd here consisted of people that had lived here for generations, people that moved to Lowtown hoping to gentrify the area, and Nori's Uncle Gamlen. Her good friend was already knee deep male company and laughing when they walked in. After Isabela hugged her in greeting, Nori saw Fenris eyeing her friend, looking covertly at Isabela's ample cleavage on display as she sat down with them. She predicted the two would take a liking to each other, and she wasn't wrong as she watched Isabela ignoring him but wiggling suggestively as she went back to the bar for another drink.

"Is he yours?" Isabela dropped onto the bench next to her, covertly sipping plain cranberry juice.

Isabela generally switched to alcohol later in the night, once she'd determined if it was worth her while. Nori turned to look at her, marveling at the fact that her friend looked almost as she had in college, shoulder length dark hair, full lips and plenty of Rivaini jewels covering her bronze skin. Only her eyes looked older, Nori saw the passage of time best there, and not in the impressive breasts that Isabela had always flaunted.

"Nope. Have at it. He's super sweet." Nori said to her friend. Isabela leaned towards her conspiratorially, looping an arm around her waist as she did.

"But you do have the look of someone that's getting it regularly. Who is it then? Is it the one with the chest hair?" Isabela was referring the magnificent chest pelt Varric had on display now that they were away from the office. Maker, it didn't even look like his shirt was buttoned anymore. Brennan was running her fingers through it, giggling like a maniac with a drink in her unoccupied hand.

"He's still at the office."

"Oooh, an office romance. Is it your boss?"

"His boss actually." Nori said and Isabela gave a shout triumphant of laughter.

"That's my girl." Isabela said, bringing the cold glass to her lips again. "How's the sex?"

Nori shivered slightly, thinking about the last weekend and how she'd woken up in Bran's arms that morning. When she didn't answer immediately, Isabela's eyes narrowed in comprehension.

"Oooh, if it's shivery, then it's excellent. Right then, off to what's his name?"

"Fenris." Nori whispered. Isabela got up and walked back to the bar, an exaggerated sway in her hips as she did. Nori wasn't surprised when Fenris made his way over towards her.

All night she watched Isabela and Fenris dance around each other. She hardly had time to speak with her friend after their first chat, but Nori didn't mind. Isabela popped in and out of her life from time to time, and it was best not to put too much emphasis on quality time together. As Isabela tossed her hair and laughed, Nori saw the white haired man hanging on her every movement, waiting for Isabela to give him some scrap of attention. Fenris had no idea whom he was dealing with, Isabela was a master at the chase. While Brennan and Ruvena exchanged work gossip - apparently Sebastian had a special dry cleaning run every week for his ties, and ties alone, Nori drank with Varric.

"Couldn't convince your new boyfriend to come out with us?" Varric asked her.

"He was still working when I left. Maybe some other time." Nori said and Varric snorted.

"You don't realize how different he's been since you started working at the Keep. He would never even consider coming out with us before you were here. And not to Lowtown at all, no art galleries here." Varric said.

"Yeah, he's right Nori. He's good guy, gets things done but he's a workaholic ogre most of the time." Brennan said. Ruvena blushed, not wanting to say anything bad about Bran.

"He's been different since I joined the staff?" The raucous laughter that followed the question was answer enough for Nori.

"He had a huge crush on you messere." Ruvena finally spoke up. "He used to wait for you to come in so he could watch you cross the lobby. It was so cute."

Nori took in the information as Isabela sat a shot down in front of each of them, accidentally brushing Fenris as she did.

"To the underpaid assistants, may they always gossip about us favorably." Varric said.

"Here here!" Nori said, knowing that she was the focus of much gossip right now. She tossed back her drink, letting the sweet concoction burn her throat on the way down.

When her cab came to take her home, Isabela and Fenris were huddled in a corner. They were talking in loud, slightly drunken voices and they kept touching each other to punctuate their words. Nori shook her head knowingly after saying goodbye to them. There was no point in wondering where Fenris would wake up tomorrow morning.

The gossip surrounding Nori and Bran fed the office for the week, and she suspected that it would go on for a while. She'd heard some of it, but maintained a stony silence after the first day, despite Varric and the Viscount's occasional gentle teasing. Varric she could at least yell at, but Viscount Dumar was determined to make her blush every single time she had to interact with him. It was like being teased by an affectionate uncle.

Bran went to pick up Nori on Saturday night to take her to the Viscount's house for dinner. When he reached her door she was standing in front of him with her robe on, but her hair and makeup were done. She flung the door open with a cross look on her face and when he leaned in to kiss her, got her cheek instead of her lips. Nori was upset.

"Why aren't you dressed?" He asked her. They needed to leave soon.

"What are you wearing?" She looked at his clothes, taking in his jeans and sweater. "Why didn't you tell me what to wear?" She asked desperately.

"I didn't think it mattered."

"I've never had dinner with the Viscount before, so I had no idea what to wear! Don't look at me like that. I've been in here for an hour trying to call you. Why didn't you answer me?"

Bran fished his phone out of his coat pocket and looked at the screen. He had six new missed calls from her.

"So you did." He conceded. Nori turned her back on him, running up the stairs to her closet.

He followed her, after leaving his coat on her couch. When he got upstairs her robe was discarded on the bed and she was coming out of her closet wearing a sweater and jeans. The sweater was a fuzzy, cream colored thing with a deep v-neck, and three-quarter sleeves but it was her jeans that made him look twice. How she even zipped them was a mystery to him, they were like dark indigo paint on her skin instead of denim. He sat on her bed, admiring her as she bent over to pick up something.

When she sat down next to him, she was not only wearing jewelry but socks as well, and pulled on a pair of dove grey boots. On her wrist, a multitude of silver bangles chimed musically together as she moved and he saw a silver necklace around her neck. Nori stopped in front of her bureau, spraying herself once with perfume before she walked back into the closet, only to emerge with a new purse. He watched her dump the contents of her old purse into the new bag without even pausing to see what they were.

"Come on." She said.

When they went back downstairs, she opened her front closet and he saw that it was filled with coats - all hers. Bran had five coats total, and one was a monstrosity he never wore, his mother had sent it from Orlais. She selected a puffy white jacket filled with down and with fake fur along the hood. Next to the door was a larger bag - she'd packed to stay with him for the rest of the weekend. She put on gloves and a scarf before she slung the overnight bag over her shoulder. It hadn't even taken her ten minutes to do all of that. Bran thought for sure they'd still be standing in her closet as she looked around at the clothes, trying to select something.

"You're ready?" He asked her, a little surprised.

"Aren't you?" She answered. It exasperated him how she had the ability to answer with a question all the time, it always made him feel like he was two steps behind.

On their way to dinner with the Viscount and his son, Bran reflected on the many times he'd been to over to see Marlowe since he'd become Viscount; it hadn't been enough recently. They had last gone to see Jason play hockey in the season opener this year, but that had been weeks ago and it had been longer still since he'd gone to the manse to see him. Certainly they went out in their line of work, but it was rarely ever personal as it had been at the beginning of their friendship. They met when their sons were young, but it was only after Bran's divorce Marlowe began inviting him over more often, just to get him out of the house.

In those visits, he'd grown to love Saemus. Whenever Jason stayed with him, usually on the weekends, they would come and visit the Dumars, the four of them playing sports. Jason emerged the victor more often than not, foreshadowing his future successes in team sports. Marlowe was more like a brother to him than his superior, but he understood the delineation. He was friends with Marlowe and worked for the Viscount, but he valued both relationships highly. He had a great deal of respect for his friend and his powerful negotiation skills and had learned a lot from him in their years of friendship. When Marlowe been approached to become Viscount, Bran was the first person he hired.

As they walked up to the Viscount's house, the flat grey stone of Old Hightown was covered in snow from an afternoon storm. Nori was nervous about seeing the Viscount outside of work, it seemed wrong, like seeing a teacher during summer break. It didn't help that Bran told her almost nothing about Marlowe Dumar, she barely even saw the man at work and now was standing in front of the giant mansion that was the Viscount's private residence.

"Your hair looks pretty like that." He said to her as they waited on the step.

"Thanks." She said nervously, chewing on her lip slightly. She'd pinned her fringe out of her eyes tonight, but her hair still hung in the long layers that she usually wore it in, just with a curl at the ends.

Bran took her hand in his, comforting her as they waited for someone to open the door. Finally after what seemed an eternity, Saemus Dumar opened the door himself.

"Finally!" He said excitedly and hugged Bran without preamble as soon as he stepped into hugging range.

"Saemus, you look well." Bran said, still embracing him. Saemus looked a great deal like his father, the same mouth and the bright turquoise eyes, but the younger Dumar had a head full of thick dark hair arranged messily stylish fashion, and a slight, muscular figure.

"I've asked Father countless times to have you to dinner again, so you'll have to pardon my excitement that he actually remembered to ask you this time." Saemus said as they pulled apart.

"It has been too long Saemus. Jason sends his regards. I wish he could have joined us this but he already had plans." Bran said, shrugging off his coat. Nori stood there just inside the doorway, unsure of what to do after she took off her gloves. Bran waited for her to wiggle out of her coat and hung it in the closet behind him. He seemed to know the house quite well.

"It's good to see you again Nori." Saemus said turning to her at last. "I enjoyed your article about conservation practices." When he said it, Bran groaned but Saemus spoke over him.

"I don't believe I was talking to you Bran, rather complimenting Nori on her fine environmental ideas." He said in a loud voice, his tone light.

"Don't get him started Nori, he'll be on that shit all night." Bran said to her over his shoulder as he strode into another room.

"Come on Nori, once you've said hi to my dad, I'll give you a tour. SO WE CAN TALK ABOUT PRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES." Saemus yelled in the direction of Bran's back. Bran flung his hand up in a dismissive gesture as he walked ahead of them. This wasn't what she'd been expecting at all, it was more like visiting her family.

"Ouch! Fuck!" Nori walked in the kitchen to see the Viscount pulling something out of the oven and shouting fuck as he did. It was so at odds with how she normally saw him, it was jarring. He was shaking his burnt digit as he walked over to run it under the faucet.

"I hope you didn't make that. I don't have the number for poison control on speed dial anymore." Bran said, leaning against the dark wood cabinets.

"You're fucking fired." Marlowe said grumpily as Nori giggled.

"Oh Nori, you came. I'm so glad we don't have to suffer Bran's company alone." The Viscount greeted her, smiling at her from where he stood at the sink.

"He is a bit insufferable, isn't he?" Nori replied and Marlowe gave her a wink.

"How's Carver and Beth?" Saemus asked her.

"They're fine. Carver's still the same." Nori said without further explanation and Saemus laughed.

"Insecure? He used to hate our teasing when we played lacrosse. I remember he especially had a sore spot about anyone dating his sisters."

"He still does." Bran said darkly, and Nori noticed he was drinking a glass of wine she hadn't seen him get. Saemus laughed again.

"Come on Nori, I'll show you around this dusty, old, and not-at-all environmentally friendly but historic mansion. Highlight of your life, I know." Saemus said, offering his arm and leading her out the way they came in.

"You look happy." Marlowe said to Bran once they were alone in the kitchen.

"It's good." Bran said, shrugging slightly. "What kind of wine is this? It tastes like piss."

"It is piss. I bottled it just for you. It was a gift from the Antivian ambassador, but they make better brandy than wine."

"She's amazing." Bran ignored Marlowe's comment about the wine.

"Of that, I have no doubt. Have you told her about Jane yet?"

"Yes, right after a week of dating I love to tell women how my son's mother cheated on me and was pregnant by someone else when I ended our marriage. No Marlowe, I thought I'd save that for dessert tonight."

"Alright, I was just asking." Marlowe changed tack, not allowing Bran to get sulky. "Jason emailed me the other day. He sounds like everything is going well for him, lots of incomprehensible sports talk in his email. How's your sister?" Bran's sister Marilin was a Mother in the Chantry.

"She was fine last time I talked to her, but I can't say I've been to the Chantry at all recently to see her. Said that our parents were fine but thinking of moving again."

"They're in Jader, right? Damn cold place to retire."

"That's my thought too, but Dad loves the fishing there." Bran said, as Nori reentered the room with Saemus.

"The problem with that is how it diminishes the effectiveness of peaceful protests and makes factions within the groups that should be under the same banner." She finished.

Saemus caught his father giving him a stern, exasperated look and he stopped his rebuttal. "Another time then, it looks like my dad is ready for dinner."

"Indeed I am. Help me carry this to the table. No, not you Nori, go sit down and Bran, get her some better wine."

They shared a large meal of lasagna, and the conversation was much easier than it had been when Bran visited the Hawkes. Perhaps because of the large amount of wine poured into her glass, or the fact that the Viscount was so different, so very casual outside of the office but Nori found herself laughing for a good portion of the night. She laughed more than she ate, and she did both in grand portions.

"Let's see Saemus, why don't we do our best to embarrass Bran in front of his new girlfriend?" Marlowe suggested with a gleeful look at his son when they were nearly finished eating. Nori was sitting lazily, drinking her wine still as she sat back in her chair. Looking over at Bran, who was sitting much as she was, but with an espresso instead of wine, she saw a smirk cross his face.

"I certainly can think of a few gems that Nori doesn't know about." Saemus replied.

"Oh? Do tell." Nori said, scooting to the edge of her chair.

"There's nothing you can tell her that she hasn't seen worse already." Bran said, wondering what stories they were going to tell. Nothing too bad, because he had a few of his own about both of them.

"Does she know you failed your bar exam twice because you were hungover?" Marlowe asked.

"The first time I was tired. The second time I was still drunk." Bran clarified, earning him peals of laughter from both Nori and Saemus. Marlowe leaned over and refilled her wine glass before sitting back and looking thoughtful.

"There was that time you tried to play lacrosse with me and Jason." Saemus said and Marlowe laughed.

"Oh, do tell that one, I think he limped for a week afterwards." Marlowe said, encouraging his son as Nori turned eagerly towards Saemus, ready to listen in to Bran's less than stellar moments. This was better than seeing baby pictures.

"Did you have a good time?" Bran asked her as they walked away from the Viscount's mansion. Their arms were linked and his collar was turned up against the cold. Nori's hood was drawn tight, wreathing her face in fake fur.

"Ugh, I am so stuffed." Nori groaned playfully but she had overeaten something awful. When they were in the car she finally spoke again.

"You never mentioned how close you are with Marlowe." Nori said.

"No, I didn't."

"But you two are brothers."

"Distant cousins actually, but yes, we are more like brothers in some ways."

"And you let me suffer through his teasing at work without saying a word?" Nori asked indignantly.

"He's been teasing you?" Bran laughed, the loud sound filling the car. "Yes, he would."

"I had no idea what to say to him, it's been all blushes and stammers on my end." Nori huffed and Bran laughed again.

"When did you talk to Jason?" Nori asked him, remembering that he mentioned to Saemus that he'd talked to his son.

"He usually emails me once a week, but I did call him this week to see if he was busy tonight."

"Oh, I didn't realize that you talked to him so often." Nori felt like she was seeing a whole side of Bran that she'd never gave any consideration. He was so much of his job that she forgot he was a father and friend to the Viscount, forgot that he was a photographer, wine snob and art collector.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll learn all my secrets in time." He said, picking up on her forlorn tone.

"It's not that. Well it is a little bit of that, but it's more that I like you this way, I like that smile you have now. I wish I got to see it more often."

"It's just for you." He said, pulling the car into his garage. After pressing the button to close the garage door behind them, he cut the engine and reached out to Nori, cradling her face delicately in his hands. "It's because of you, so it's just for you."


	17. The Perfect Fit

Under the heel of her boot, the ice covered snow crunched in a satisfying way as Nori walked into the Keep with Bran. It was still winter, though the snow had long since stopped being pretty or interesting at this point in the season. They were holding hands as they walked in, talking softly as they walked together towards their respective offices. As the weeks went by, they had ceased to be of interest to the office at large, the novelty of their relationship wearing off as it became fact instead of speculation.

It was the end of the week, but Nori had already been staying with Bran for several nights. Slowly they'd fallen into a routine, spending as much time as possible outside of work together. Nori had even brought one of her gaming consoles to Bran's house - not her main one, but the disused one that had been in her bedroom with a pile of games she'd been meaning to try. She'd even gotten Bran to play, but he liked the stories more than shooting and wound up watching her more often than joining.

The office was quiet; they'd come in early that morning, but it was far from empty. Absent was the rushing, the incessant talking, ringing phones, the hum of the electronics and the miscellaneous buzz that came from the amount of people clustered in the tiny cubicles where the majority of the people worked. It was almost like a weekend day, but the feeling was different, it was as if they were just waiting for everyone else instead of the private, secluded feeling of working on the weekend.

On the landing near Bran's office, the Viscount was standing, watching the two of them make their way upstairs. There was something so complete about the attractive couple, that it almost made him forget that they hadn't been together for a very long time. He thought back to their visit, now weeks in the past when Bran had said simply "It's good" about the two of them. It had to be more than good between his Chief of Staff and Nori. The two of them had been friends for many, many years, since Bran's father had approached him about a job for his young, married son, newly graduated with a baby on the way. It had been Dumar that encouraged the bright and talented Bran to go to law school, even though it would take longer for him to graduate going part time. Even sifting through nearly twenty-one years of his memories, he could never recall seeing Bran like this, it was as if he was more like himself than he'd ever been.

There were times in their jobs when it consumed much more than it gave, the demanding pressures and delicate balances becoming a way of life. There were no boundaries, no clear definitions of when the work day ended. That was part of what had driven Bran's first wife into the arms of another man, because she didn't understand and didn't like it encroaching on time she thought belonged to her. Saemus's mother had been different, and the Viscount sighed, thinking about his long deceased wife. He missed her, missed her personality and spirit, the support she so readily gave without full understanding of his job. It was so rare to find.

Even more rare was what he saw with Bran and Nori, he saw Bran deferring to her judgment, asking for her opinions and her seeking out his expertise. They had a partnership based on a shared passion, understanding and respect, but it was clear to both he and Bran that Nori was the stronger of the two personalities. In private, Bran had admitted that were the situation different, that if Nori were his age then she would be far above him, a strong contender for Viscount. Dumar had to agree with his friend, and respected that Bran loved about her what a lesser man would have cowered from.

He watched her try to release Bran's hand, but he held to it, still speaking softly to Nori. When he let it go, it was as if she dragged it away reluctantly from his, her happy face smiling at him. Nori walked out of sight, down the hallway leading to her office and Bran turned away, towards his office but then spun around, calling out and walking a few paces back towards her, then speaking softly, his words inaudible to the Viscount. What reached his ears was the answering giggle from Nori, echoing down the hallway.

"Your Excellency, what are you doing here?" Bran was surprised to see him waiting.

"I had an early call with Queen Anora of Ferelden."

"Should I have been here for that?"

"No, it wasn't on your calendar. I'm glad you're here now, there might be something." Viscount Dumar said, walking with Bran to his office.

"What's going on?"

"We're not sure yet, but Jeven's coming down and Free Marches Federal is sending over someone. A woman, Aveline something, to brief."

"Aveline Hendyr?"

"I think that was the name. Do you know her?"

"She's friends with Nori. They would send her, she's one of their best, but has been stuck at her desk since she came back from maternity leave. If there's a new threat she would be point on it."

"Is she good?"

"She's friends with Nori." Bran answered and Dumar nodded in understanding. She was likely better than his head of Kirkwall State Security, Jeven. There was something off about him, but Dumar hadn't been able to get anything from an internal investigation. The issue had never been raised again, and Dumar didn't have a good reason to replace him so he endured his service.

"Hey Hawke." Aveline was standing in Nori's doorway not too long after Nori had began her day.

"Aveline, what brings you to the Keep?" Nori looked up, surprised to see her friend. She rose from behind her desk to hug her.

"Free Marches business. I'm a little early to tell you the truth, but I was nervous about meeting the Viscount." Aveline looked over at Nori's outfit. "And now I feel underdressed."

Nori was wearing a light gold colored cap sleeve blouse covered with a tan, lettuce-edged cardigan paired with wide-legged trousers in a pale khaki hue. The trousers had a ribbon belt across the waist, a silk sash in gunmetal and she'd changed into nude colored pumps after she'd come in from the snow. She laughed at Aveline's statement.

"Nonsense, you look nice." Nori said truthfully. Aveline's suit was simple but the cut was flattering and the light grey looked nice against her skin and hair. "Besides, you aren't as intensely scrutinized as I am."

"Rumors still circulating about you and the boss, I take it."

"No longer worthy of the watercooler, but we're never free of it."

"You won't be. It comes with the territory, but people would always talk about you Nori. You are your father's daughter." Aveline said sagely. Nori remembered that she had dated Donnic as his superior when they'd both worked at the police station. Every phone call between them had been about how much she liked Donnic and how immature their co-workers were about the situation.

"How's the fam?"

"Fine, everyone's fine. It's been more difficult than I thought it would be back to work these past few months, but Donnic and the girls are handling it better than I am. At least I'm not wanting for work."

"Big stuff happening?"

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't. I better get going, even though I'm still early and the Viscount's not in his office. Hey, is Varric around here?" Aveline had been slightly taken with Varric after he'd helped her years ago in an investigation into business fraud. Nori had no idea how many businesses he and his brother Bartrand actually owned or had interests in, but she felt like without the Tethras brothers, Kirkwall wouldn't have half as many shops. Of the people in the office, only the Viscount and Sebastian had more personal wealth than Varric and both of them were old money.

"Yeah he's just down the hall. You're welcome to wait in here though, I can tell Elthina that you're here and she'll call Brennan when you need to go up."

"No, it's better if I wait there, then I won't be bothering you."

"Alright. Varric's the third door down. It's good to see you Aveline."

"See you later, Hawke." Aveline gave a small wave and strode off down the hall.

Bran was sitting in this meeting that had stretched on far, far longer than scheduled and was likely to go on for another few hours. They were going to need food again soon, but no one was stopping to think about it while they worked, the situation too tense to think of empty stomachs. He knew that Elthina would send food without need of a reminder, and pushed the thought out of his mind. There was a critical situation between the Tevinters and Par Vollen, though both sides were in violation of their treaty.

The hostilities between the two places was so old that no one really knew why it went on anymore. Old prejudice and strained trade relations with the rest of Thedas caused flare ups from time to time, any excuse to ignite the powder keg of war during a time of relative peace across the rest of the continent.

Unfortunately there were complications, as there always was when fighting broke out. A Kirkwall science ship was in the Northern Passage, having left dock from Qunadar but there had been no word from it. The silence was almost as bad as would be if the ship had been attacked outright. There were all sorts of Free Marches civilians from students to tourists, stuck in the Tevinter cities that were now under attack. Neither government was claiming responsibility for the hostilities, but efforts to evacuate non-National citizens from Tevinter was being met with resistance.

Out of the window, he saw the winter sun setting. Excusing himself, he got up and went out to his office to check his email before stopping at Ruvena's desk.

"Ruvena, I need you to make a copy of these." He said to his assistant.

"Yes messere." She said immediately.

When he took his next break from the meeting, after hours had passed without much changing in Tevinter and there was still no sign of the science vessel that had been out gathering sea life samples, he went back to his office. The situation was not going well and he tried to figure out what to recommend to the Viscount, collecting his thought before he went back in. Looking at his desk, he saw that Ruvena had left the copies for him. Quickly, he wrote something on a slip of paper, put it in an envelope and walked out.

"Nori." Bran said, standing in her doorway looking exhausted.

"Hey. Are you still in that meeting?"

"Yeah, there's a lot going on. Here." He said. He handed her an envelope that felt heavy and when she opened it, she gave him a puzzled look.

"Those are my house keys. Or rather your copy of them and the passcode to the alarm. Go home." He said to her.

"I know the passcode, I've seen you enter it enough times. You're giving me keys?"

"You do want to go to sleep tonight, don't you?"

"I would have gone to my apartment or waited for you."

"Yes, but then I'd just have to wake you up when I get in tonight. It's easier this way, and I want you to have them. We're not going to be finished in there anytime soon."

"Okay, um, thanks. When I leave, I'll check your office and see if you're out yet before I go."

"Don't stay too late." He said, leaving her office to go back to his meeting.

Later that night, Nori got into the car with the driver that normally took Bran home. It was strange, going into his house without him, even though she knew it as well as she knew her own. When she went in the clock she passed said it was nearly midnight. She'd tried to wait for him, but when she'd been reduced to napping and playing games on her computer, she'd called for the car and left with no sign of Bran.

The house still felt comfortable without him, which was more than she could say about her own apartment. After months of living there it was still gorgeous and felt more like a showpiece than a home. His things felt warm and familiar to her, but when she went to her apartment, it seemed empty without her. Perhaps that was why she preferred his townhouse, but his house also had a level of luxury that she'd never known.

Besides fruit, there was nothing in his refrigerator that didn't need preparation, much to her dismay. Nori stood in front of the fridge with the door open after she'd taken a bath, searching the shelves in vain for something she could just reheat. Searching through the cupboards, she found nothing easier to make than the pancake mix. Bran had one of those fancy pans that practically made the pancakes itself, all she'd need to do was make the mix and pour it into the silver-dollar sized indentations.

Nori settled on making fruit salad with the assortment of fruits she found and then put the bowl back in the fridge while she made the pancake batter, pouring a generous helping of chocolate chips in as she did. Half an hour later she sat in the bed, eating fruit salad topped with whipped cream and chocolate chip pancakes that were only slightly burned. In front of her, the television played a black and white movie and she sat alone in the darkness eating and waiting for Bran, she hoped that he was able to come home soon.

When he came in, it was after three in the morning. He'd been working for twenty hours since he and Nori had come in early that morning. The science vessel had gone to Rivain and was mostly undamaged, but there were still people stuck in Tevinter. They would never get everyone out, he thought wearily as he opened the door to his house. Wrinkling his nose slightly at the smell of burning that still hung in the air, he took off his coat and went into the kitchen. There was a note for him.

"I made you dinner." It was written on a sticky note in Nori's loopy, slightly rushed handwriting. He looked and found a plate covered in plastic wrap when he opened the refrigerator. There were about ten pancakes piled on the plate next to a heap of fruit. Nori ate a lot of fruit and salad, but Bran suspected that was her aversion to actually cooking things more than a desire to be healthy.

He sat down on one of the barstools at the island in the kitchen, reheating the pancakes on a separate plate before eating them. Bran had no desire to wake Nori, and hoped she had come home long before him, but he knew she'd probably waited for him. After eating the pancakes, which were more chocolate than pancake, he quietly went to his room. The television was on but there was no motion or sound and he realized she'd paused a movie before she'd fallen asleep. Nori was sprawled across the bed, laying diagonally.

"Hey." She said sleepily when he got into bed. He'd tried to move her without disturbing her. "What time is it?" Her body was sleep warm and she wrapped her legs around his as he pulled the duvet over them.

"Nearly four."

"Did you just get here?"

"Almost an hour ago. I ate downstairs, I didn't want to wake you."

"Come to bed." She said, curling into his chest. It was the best suggestion he'd heard all day.

There were stores, actual stores that served champagne to women while they shopped. In the months that they'd been dating, he'd mostly avoided the shopping part, leaving that to Bethany and Leandra or sometimes Isabela or Aveline. Had he known there was alcohol involved, he might have volunteered sooner. Bran was ensconced in an armchair in some boutique in Old Hightown while a salesperson brought Nori pair after pair of jeans. He had been given a glass as soon as they got in the shop and shoved into the chair where he now sat, a somewhat sad sight, drunk in his suede upholstered chair. When they'd greeted her by name, he knew he'd been sitting there for a long while. She came out and showed him the latest pair.

"Why do all of them look like a second skin?" He asked her and she looked at her reflection in the three-way mirror.

"I like them this way. It's easier to tuck into boots. But it's hard to find the perfect fit."

"It is exceedingly difficult to find the right fit when it comes to denim." One of the associates intoned in a grave voice, as she handed her another pair. Bran snorted into his champagne and earned a disdainful look from the young woman who bustled past him.

"Bran, you don't have to stay." She said when she came back out, wearing the newest pair. They were dark blue and fit like a glove, accentuating the pert curve of her ass.

"No, it's fine." He wasn't leaving if they were going to keep giving him champagne. "I like those." He said to Nori, nodding slightly at her in the newest pair of jeans. There was a three-way mirror in front of her and she was turning around in it, inspecting herself from different angles. Bran was simply sitting back, appreciating the view he was treated to of her as she twisted around in the mirror again.

"Oh yeah?" Nori smiled at him and went back to change into the clothes she'd worn into the store. When she came out of the dressing room she was buttoning up the winter coat the weather still necessitated even though it was technically spring. She bought the last pair she'd tried on and a few others. It had taken nearly two hours.

He folded his arms around her when they left the store, giving her a slightly drunken kiss. He had the warm, buzzy feeling he only got with champagne. She giggled, wrapping her arms about him, the shopping bag full of jeans hitting him in the side softly as they bounced around.

"I should take you shopping more often. You're so cute when you're drunk."

"You don't have to take me shopping to get me drunk."

"Yeah but it really works out in my favor. New clothes and drunk Bran. I could get used to that."

He leaned down and gave her another kiss and she rubbed against his chest like a contented cat. They needed to get someplace more private, he thought as the champagne went to his head. She took his hand and led him around a corner. Bran got excited, thinking that they were going to find a secluded corner for more kisses, but his hope faded as he saw yet another store in front of them.

"You're lucky I love you." He said to her grumpily, as she pulled him forward. It was the first time he'd said that he loved her.

"You love me?" She was looking at him quizzically, a little shocked. Bran suddenly felt completely sober.

"I...we don't say it, do we? I thought I had before. I was certain I had at some point. But I do, very much." He was stumbling over his woolen tongue, wishing that he hadn't drank so much in that store. She was giving him a peculiar look, it made him sure that she hadn't heard him say he loved her before, even though he often thought it.

"I love you too. Come on, I'll buy you lunch and you can call the car to take us back to yours." She said steering him towards a small restaurant. He let her lead, smiling at her back. He loved her.


	18. Corcovado

Sometimes Nori wondered why she had an apartment of her own anymore. Months together had flown by in a haze of happiness and Bran's home was now more like their shared place. The weather had grown warm again, and the spring rains had given way to the few weeks of warm, pleasant weather before the heat set in. Bran's closet now held a good assortment of her clothes and accessories and she stood in his shower, changing her hair to a color slightly more vibrant the natural slightly dusty black and grey that grew in.

"It looks like an oil spill." Bran shouted to her as he came into the bathroom. His shower stall was all glass and he could see her through the steam. Rivulets of black water ran down the sides of the shower and she stood in a pool of rushing ink.

"Beauty is pain, Bran." She retorted as she heard him wash his hands before exiting. He really just came in to see what she was doing in there. He'd offered to wash the dye out of her hair for her, but now that he'd seen it, he was glad she'd turned him down.

Later that night she sat nestled in his arms after she'd blown her hair dry. She was wearing the velour pants he'd grown to love and one of his shirts, her newly blackened hair hanging down like a silken curtain to the middle of her back. He was reading, but she was dozing lightly against his chest after claiming the process of doing her hair had made her sleepy. He didn't doubt it.

Part of Bran was frightened at how comfortable this had become, how quickly he'd fallen in love with her, how he'd let her into every part of his life, how he loved having her in every part of his life. He voiced the sentiment easily and she reciprocated. The relationship wasn't always effortless, he struggled not to let his jealous side flare, knowing how possessiveness earned her ire and he hated the temper she had to work at controlling. Most of the time Bran was content and unquestioning about their relationship. Nori neither pushed or demanded and he found that they simply just worked well together.

She was so different than most of the women he'd ever gone out with. Nori was always unflinchingly honest with him, but she didn't lack tact. She was beautiful but never snobbish, charitable but not foolish. Above all, he admired her intelligence and the way she challenged him to be more like himself. He wasn't so blindly in love that he could blithely ignore her faults, but he recognized her tendency towards isolation, that she could be so single-minded in pursuing goals that tunnel vision didn't begin to describe it. But all in all, she fit with him, giving him a peace he'd never known in a relationship.

On Monday they were on their way to Starkhaven in a small private plane. Technically, Nori had to be there because she was a Senior staffer, and the Viscount was addressing the assembly but Bran explained that she would have come along anyway at his behest.

"Even if the Viscount wasn't requiring you to go, I would want you to go."

"Why?"

"Because you know the Assembly and the people there, you'll know before anyone else how well this speech goes over with the people that matter. And because I hate sleeping alone."

"Are we in the same room? Scandalous, even for us."

"Adjoining rooms actually. But I'm sure I can convince you to open your back door for me." Bran smirked at her as she chucked a pillow at him.

"I have something for you." Nori walked over to her bag and pulled out a slender black box with a white ribbon tied ornately around it. "It's for your Name Day, but I wanted to give it to you before we went to Starkhaven."

Bran accepted the box, wondering what it could contain. It had been ages since anyone besides Jason or his sister Marilin had given him a Name Day gift. He slid the ribbon off and removed the lid, moving aside the cedar-scented tissue paper to reveal his present. It was a tie, but true to Nori's style, it wasn't simply a tie. Lifting the tie from the box, he ran his hands over the imported Orlesian silk, at once both sleek and soft in his hands, marveling at the beauty of the accessory.

"Thank you, my love. It's beautiful. You have no idea how much this means to me, truly."

Bran always stunned her when he displayed tenderness. He was never harsh with her, but she'd gotten used to his prickly personality and the two of them used sarcasm more often than not. Now he had no other words, overcome by the gesture and she saw a rare flash of his vulnerable side. He'd gone over to her and kissed her fiercely, igniting a fire in his own body, ready to thank her thoroughly for the gift. Nori nearly blushed at the memory of how he'd shown his appreciation, but returned her attention to the plane where they sat, ready to leave for Starkhaven.

"And if you've never had it, you all should really try our traditional Starkhaven pie." Sebastian announced to everyone on the plane. Nori scoffed soundlessly from the window seat next to Bran. Sebastian was only going because he was still technically a member of the royal family of Starkhaven. Otherwise he'd be back at the Keep babysitting and taking his ties out for dry cleaning.

"Why didn't I get the memo about wearing a jaunty skirt?" Nori whispered into Bran's ear as Sebastian extolled the virtues of Starkhaven cuisine to the airplane at large, standing at the head of the small plane as they waited for the signal to take off. He was wearing a traditional Starkhaven kilt, presumably in the sett of his clan but Nori didn't dare ask him, lest he explain it to her.

"I'm just glad I don't have to wear one." Bran said back.

"You'd look delectable. I demand you get one while we are in Starkhaven and wear it only for me."

"You know they don't wear anything under them. My balls have never yearned for that much freedom."

"How am I supposed to get through this entire plane ride if you talk about your balls? Maker's breath I'm about to pin you down in your seat."

"That might be marginally more interesting than listening to Sebastian." Bran replied in a dull tone, and Nori gave him her best shocked face.

"I'll make you pay for that little remark darling Bran, just you wait."

"I hope it involves blindfolds and not kilts."

"Only time will tell." Nori said, looking out the window with a grin on her face.

Bran reached over and took her hand as she looked out of the window of the small plane they were on. She didn't mind flying but she was nervous about the next two days. They'd be working nonstop until the address and afterwards they'd rush home. As they took off, she squeezed his hand in hers and he gently stroked her knuckles with his thumb in a comforting way, he knew that taking off was always her least favorite part of flying.

That night he had a meeting that she didn't need to be in. Nori went down to the bar in the hotel for a drink but regretted it once she looked around at the lounge near packed with politicians. The room would have been handsome in an earlier time, but now seemed quaintly dated, a symbol of past elegance. The thick pink draperies were faded, brass chandeliers hung over every table, the worn green carpet in a pattern that seemed woefully garish now but probably trendy at the time.

Unable to find a seat at the bar, she was besieged by people talking to her, people from Tantervale, people who knew her father, people who actually knew her and those that just wanted to. People pressed in all around her, speaking at once to her, asking too many questions, issuing invitations for events, asking her opinion. Nori could feel herself start to sweat as she tried to move back out of the smoky room, shaking hands and talking to people as she did. All of the attention was overwhelming and when she finally wriggled from the grasp of an aged woman from Hercinia who called her sweetling in every other breath, Nori retreated to her room.

When she entered the room, Bran was waiting for her.

"Where were you?"

"Down in the bar, I couldn't get away. How long have you been up here?"

"Long enough to shower. I tried calling you but you didn't pick up."

"I thought I heard the strains of a bossa nova beat but I thought it was my heart trying to give out as I worked my way through the crowd."

"Your phone plays the bossa nova when I call?"

"Yes, Corcovado is your ring." He picked up his phone and called her; cocking his head to listen to the song playing at her hip.

"You could have just asked me to play the song."

"Then play it and dance with me. We haven't danced since that fundraising thing for Thrask." He said. She put her phone on the nearby table and found the song in her playlist, pressing play and setting it to repeat before walking over to Bran.

He held out his arms and she went to him, humming along as the song came out of the tiny speakers. As they danced around the room he led, twirling her at random times with a smile on his face. She giggled as he dipped her backwards before bringing his face to hers for a kiss. A pounding knock against the hollow hotel door and broke them apart.

"Damn, I forgot I ordered food." He cursed softly as he stood her upright before moving swiftly to the door. She stopped the music, the mood shattered by the interruption. As the food was brought in she settled onto his bed, tired after braving the crowd of people in the bar.

The next evening the Viscount gave his televised speech to the Assembly on the state of Kirkwall. It was a generally well-received speech, not a resounding success, but a departure from the miserable speeches that Dumar had given to the Assembly in the past. Kirkwall appeared to be coming up, regaining the status it once had. It was also Bran's Name Day and he wore the tie she'd given him when they were on camera, the navy blue of his pinstriped suit matching the blue in the tie.

Bran's former wife Jane saw him on television that night, though she barely kept up with politics since she'd remarried. She was surprised, usually when she saw Bran on television he looked as if he'd been forced into going, uncomfortable and tugging at his collar. The man she saw before her was collected and exuding the confidence that had attracted her to him, but it helped that he wasn't the one giving the speech. His suit was especially well-chosen, the slim fit and cut framing his lean muscle. She stopped flicking through the channels to watch, not paying attention to what Viscount Dumar was saying, focusing on her ex-husband.

She rarely saw Bran unless it was something to do with Jason, but he was always cordial to her, if a little cool. There was no way that she could even suggest being friendly with him after the divorce, neither of them were that magnanimous. Although she hated the way things ended between them, detesting her own immaturity, she was content with her second husband and wished Bran every happiness whenever they had to see each other. It was rare to see him in such fine form, to her eyes he floundered after the dissolution of their marriage, like he needed a steady base and he'd never been able to make one for himself.

For a moment Jane sat there on the edge of the bed covered in a patchwork quilt in her bedroom, watching the address. Bran sat in the boxed seating next to the stage, with all the other advisers and officials from Kirkwall. When the camera panned to Norina Hawke, they briefly flashed her name and title underneath her and the camera followed as she leaned towards Sebastian Vael to say something in his ear. Norina Hawke looked a great deal like her father, Jane thought as she looked at her face, until something else caught her eye - Norina's suit. The young woman was wearing a suit in the exact same color as Bran's, the navy blue exclusive to the two of them in the Kirkwall box seating, with everyone else was wearing black or grey. Jane nearly laughed aloud at the revelation. Bran didn't have any more fashion sense now than he had before; he just had a new girlfriend. For his sake, Jane hoped that he was finally in a good relationship as she turned off the television, leaving the room to go tuck in her two youngest children.

The lights were off in the cabin of the plane as they flew back to Kirkwall. Varric and Nori were the only ones with their overhead lights on, Bran was seated next to Nori, sleeping soundly on her shoulder.

"Good job tonight." Nori said to Varric, seated just across from her. "Why didn't you sit with us?"

"Thank you my lady. I never like seeing myself on camera, even in the background. Plus, I like to be in the back where they get the approval numbers, see the reaction as it comes in. You looked especially radiant on camera, if I may say so Nori." Varric said, earning a smile from Nori.

"Stop trying to charm my woman, Varric." Bran's sleepy voice said suddenly.

"Bran, if I ever tried to charm Nori, she'd be my woman instead of yours."

"Because I am powerless to resist and have no mind of my own apparently."

Varric laughed, a rich deep chuckle that came from within his barrel chest. He looked at her over the top of his half-glasses, the ones he only used when he was writing. His blond hair was pulled into its usual half ponytail, and he was wearing a sleek black suit.

"Nori, everyone tries a little more and works a little harder when you're around. I could have come up with some very impressive lines if you had been interested." Varric said, but then looked over at Bran who was asleep again.

"But, I know a forgone conclusion when I see one." He finished, turning his attention back to whatever he was writing.

Nori reached overhead and turned her light out. They would land soon and they would have to do some press before they could go home. Leaning back in her seat, she let her eyes close and smiled to herself.


	19. Saemus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I chose not to use the Archive Warnings for a major character death, this chapter does include the death of a character. There is a trigger warning for vehicular death and drunk driving accidents.

It had been an early night for Nori and Bran, for once. After work they'd gone to an exhibition at the largest gallery in Kirkwall, where Bran shamed her clothing budget by spending ridiculous amounts of money on art. When they'd left for dinner, the artist had been visibly disappointed that he couldn't convince Bran to buy more of his work.

They'd gone to bed long before their usual time, enjoying the unusual chance to retire early. He was dreaming, sleeping soundly his legs tangled with Nori's in his bed. In his dream, a phone was ringing, far off and distant. It wasn't his mobile phone, the one next to him on his nightstand and he ignored it, wishing it would go away. He heard Nori's voice answer the phone, stopping the ringing and he rolled over to go back to sleep but she started shaking him.

"Bran. Wake up. Bran! We have to go, get up!" Nori was yelling at him, and the alarm in her voice cut through his dreamy fog.

"What's wrong?" He said into his pillow. He was grumpy, but he always was whenever his sleep was interrupted. Still he was sitting up, hoping that the Keep wasn't burning down or something like that.

"Saemus was in an accident, he's been rushed to the hospital." Nori was already half dressed as he took in her words. Saemus was as close to his heart as his own son and alarm skittered through him, shocking him into stillness. She pulled the blanket off of him, exposing his naked body to the cool air of the room.

"Let's go!" She barked, snapping him into action. He dressed hurriedly, wanting to question her as he did but he held it in, knowing it would slow them down. They made the ride quickly, Nori driving them in his car.

"What did they say?" He asked her again once she'd started driving.

"It was Elthina, she was at Mercy General with Marlowe and she said 'Saemus has been in an accident and they rushed him here' but she didn't tell me anything else."

"How bad is it?"

"Bran, honey, I don't know. I just told you what Elthina said. That's all I got before she hung up." Nori said distractedly. It was the middle of the night and she navigated the nearly empty streets quickly, though she hadn't driven in a very long time.

"Why did she call you?" He asked, perplexed.

"She didn't. That was your house phone that rang." She answered shortly, trying to focus on parking the car. He watched her as if he'd never seen her before, and he realized he never had seen her drive before. Nori's hair was in a loose ponytail and she wore her glasses, but she was dressed like she normally did on the weekends, a short denim jacket over her t shirt and jeans.

"Marlowe, what's going on?" Bran rushed over to the Viscount when they got into the hospital, his hand was trembling in hers.

"My son. They are operating now, trying to save him." The Viscount swallowed, trying to dam back the tears that were welling in his dulled eyes. He was wearing a trench coat over his pajamas, his feet stuffed into shoes without socks. Bran hugged him, and Nori saw Elthina coming down the hall towards him with a cup of tea in each hand.

"I'm so glad you both are here." Elthina said sotto voce to Bran and Nori.

Nori patted her on the back in what she hoped was a comforting way. She was at a loss in these situations, even with her own father's death she'd remained the stoic one with Bethany and Mother cried and Carver raged. Not being able to help Saemus or his father made her feel impotent and useless.

"They told us that the driver who hit Saemus was drunk. He's being treated for minor injuries, but then he'll be arrested." Elthina whispered to Nori when they went to the ladies room together some time later. The private waiting room had become stifling to Nori and she'd mostly left just so she could compose herself.

"Where was Saemus?" Nori asked.

"Just outside of town. He'd come for one of those environmentalist meetings, but was going back to his apartment for his classes this morning. Ashaad wasn't with him and I've been trying to reach him all night, but his phone is off. I was going to send a car around to pick him up, but I don't know that he's there."

"Ashaad?"

"That's his boyfriend. Such a nice boy. From Seheron originally, I think. Come on dear, they need us out there." Elthina said stoutly as she dried her hands, then smoothed back the iron grey hair that was in the tight bun she always wore.

When they came back, Bran was patting Marlowe on the back while Marlowe spoke in a worried, tight voice.

"I'd just seen him tonight, he was going to come for the weekend but didn't stay tonight because he had to go to class early in the morning. He was fine, Bran, just fine. Happy, was almost late to his meeting because we were talking. He's always so happy, like his mother. Annie was like that too, don't you remember? She was sunshine embodied." Marlowe was just rambling, unable to stop talking about Saemus. When Nori walked back into the room, Marlowe turned to her and started speaking.

"He talked about you, Nori. Something you'd written, he loved it. Tonight he called you 'the friend to the environment that Kirkwall so desperately needs' and said he'd printed it out and highlighted it. After we had dinner that time, he wanted your email address, so I gave it to him. Did he ever email you?"

Nori shook her head, wishing that he had. She hadn't remembered seeing an email from Saemus ever. Next to the Viscount, Bran was sitting there, slowly unraveling. Things weren't looking good for Saemus and he sat there, tense but trying to be of some comfort. He didn't want his anxiety to influence Marlowe, but he was absolutely terrified, his hands clenched together to keep them from shaking. Never before had fear run through him as it did now, Bran was calm, utterly unflappable in most situations but now his world was spiraling out of control as they waited, each minute stretching so long that it felt excruciating.

They stood there, waiting in the hospital and no one knowing what to say to the other. Nori patted Bran's hand, and she saw his fatherly side again. Instead of proud and playful though, it was nightmarish to watch his silent anguish, for it mirrored the abject misery on Marlowe's face. They were all worried about Saemus, but Bran and Marlowe were frantic fathers forced to sit and wait. She didn't know how much time had gone by after they'd gotten to the hospital, when the doctor came to the room.

"I'm very sorry Your Excellency, there was nothing we could do. Saemus sustained multiple life-threatening injuries in the crash." Nori heard no more of the doctors words after that, her mind filled with a blank buzzing. Marlowe Dumar was sobbing wretched, broken, heaving sobs into a handkerchief and nodding at the doctor. Elthina was standing next to him, patting his hand as the doctor starting speaking more to her than to the Viscount. She felt Bran's arm grip her tightly around the waist, suddenly possessive as he buried his face in her shoulder. Nori stroked his head, hoping to comfort as she ran her hand along his auburn locks.

A deafening, oppressive silence reigned after the doctor left, only broken by the huge, echoing sobs coming from the huddled body of Marlowe as he waited for someone to take him to see his son.

"Bran." She whispered to him and he needed no more bidding. He removed himself from her sodden shoulder and embraced the Viscount, tears spilling down his own face as they mourned their mutual loss.

Nori excused herself to call Varric. He needed to know so he could issue a tasteful statement to the Press today, but also because she never quite trusted Sebastian enough not to exploit the obvious advantages of a situation like this.

Later that day they went home, nothing else to do at the hospital. Elthina was all efficiency, and she'd already started making arrangements for Saemus. Bran cried, confused and angry tears after calling his son. Nori stood in the background, useless and awkward as she heard Jason start to cry on the other end of the phone. There was nothing she could do, nothing that anyone could do and it felt worse than when her father died, for at least they knew that Malcolm was sick. Saemus was so young, younger than her, younger than Beth and Carver and it made her furious that he was gone, that his light was stolen from the world. She felt weakened, knew that the whole world was less for his loss.

Bran came over as she sat at his desk and leaning down to hugged her, holding her fast to his chest. She felt his tears on her neck, but also kisses that grew more insistent. On the side of her face she could feel his hot breath, labored and thick with tears. His hand plunged downward, underneath her shirt and groped artlessly at her but she hesitantly leaned into the touch, sensing that he wanted her to need him.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Please." He said softly into her ear.

They made love, but in the desperate way that people do when they want to break out of the bleak, consuming numbness that accompanies shock. Bran finished not with his normal shout, but with a sigh of release that sounded only slightly relieved. Nori held him close afterwards, stroking his back as he fell into a fitful doze against her.

Jason came to stay with Bran for Saemus's memorial a few days later, and he went with his dad and Nori, dressed in a black suit that he'd just bought, sitting in silence as he watched Nori looking out the window through her giant, dark sunglasses. She was as he remembered her from the past, beautiful, but tired, looked worn and understandably sad. The night before, when he'd arrived back in Kirkwall, he'd spent most of the night talking with his dad before he went to bed, but he heard his dad talking to her on the phone, crying. She'd come to the house, at what time he didn't know, but it was late and he'd heard her upstairs comforting Bran, her whispers as loud as bellows in the silent house and finally putting him to bed. That morning she'd made them all breakfast, stacks and stacks of pancakes with chocolate chips in them.

People brought things, things that they burned in the symbolic fire when someone died. Usually it was some kind of memorial, something that reminded people of the deceased. Jason had a folded flyer in his pocket - something Saemus had given him a stack of about a month ago, when he'd last talked to him. Saemus had been in the student union on campus, giving a speech about the environment, trying to get people interested in his student action group. Jason had stopped to listen and Saemus waved at him, and they talked when he'd finished his speech. Before he'd had to leave for practice, Saemus had given him a bunch of flyers for his group but Jason left them in his car, forgetting about them until they covered his backseat.

In Nori's tiny black clutch, she had two things for Saemus. One was hers, the article that the Viscount said he'd loved. Bran had a picture, a copy of a picture of a tiny Saemus and a wee Jason, standing in front of a pile of leaves with a terribly thin, young looking Bran between them, smiling toothily up at the camera. He couldn't hold it without crying, so he'd asked her to take it. She'd seen the original picture framed on his desk at the Keep.

Saemus's memorial service was held not long after his cremation. The Keep was nearly closed as the staff went to both. It was at his memorial where Nori met Ashaad and tried to offer him comfort, but the confused and sad young man was nearly frozen in his grief. She looked at his pale, waxy skin and the shock of platinum hair, saw the picture of he and Saemus that he was clutching desperately in his hand and gave him her card, imploring him to contact her if he ever wanted or needed.

Her family was here, Mother, Bethany and Carver. Merrill stood next to Carver looking contrite and tiny in all black, fidgeting as she was unsure of what to do with herself. She went over to them, speaking to them briefly in a low tone before she went back to Bran, who was standing next to the Viscount the pair of them a portrait of grief. When she hugged Marlowe, she felt how thin he'd become through his official ceremonial robes. Her mother was behind her, murmuring comforts to the Viscount as she hugged him. She was glad her mother had come, she had no idea what to say to anyone.

Back in the car, Nori came home with Bran and his body drooped wearily against hers, unable to hold himself upright any longer. His handsome face was ashen and pale, his eyes ringed red and he needed to shave.

"How are you dad?" Jason asked, tired and concern in his voice.

"He was so idealistic, always challenging me whenever we'd talk. I'll miss that."

"He was sure he could change the world, make it better. I'll miss that too." Jason said, his voice breaking slightly. He hugged his dad from his other side, his thick, muscled arms wrapping around his father's slimmer form. Nori patted Bran's back consolingly as they hugged and when the two broke apart, Bran pulled her to him, burying his face in her hair. Outside the window, the bright sun shone as the car slowed to a stop a light. She hadn't felt so desolate since her father died.


	20. The Aftermath

Bran knew that he wasn't handling Saemus's death well. The loss was eating at him, making him wish his own son were closer but not knowing what he'd do if he were. He lashed out at Nori, becoming possessive and pushing her away, contradicting himself and acting like an asshole to everyone he came in contact with. Bran spent some nights alone, drinking more than he could handle but less than he'd like, and nights sitting in the dark with Marlowe, watching mindless television in silence. If he hadn't had Nori, his clothes wouldn't be clean and nothing would be getting done at the office, but he resented her help, it made him feel like a child. She was sad too, but it never seemed like she was sad enough to him.

On Nori's Name Day, less than a month after Saemus's memorial service, he tried to pull himself out of his fog to celebrate with her. Originally he'd planned on taking her away for a few days, but that was out of the question now that Viscount wasn't coming in regularly. Alternatively, he made her dinner, something he hadn't done since before Saemus died. The meat was overdone and the vegetables were soggy, but he watched her smile through the meal, praising him for his efforts. It made him feel like shit.

Upstairs in his bedroom he handed her a wrapped box. When she opened it, she found a framed picture in it of Cumberland. She'd spoken fondly of the city where she'd gone to graduate school and wound up living for a while, lamenting that she didn't have a chance to get back there to visit.

"This is so beautiful Bran. It's that little park with the stone statues in it, I recognize it. I used to go there for walks all the time. When did you take this?"

"A few years ago, maybe five or six. I took it on film, and developed it myself. That's the only copy I have, but I wanted you to have it."

"Oh, that was around the time I lived there! Thank you so much. I'm so honored that you've finally given me one of your pictures."

"Well I got you some jewelry too. Here." He said, unceremoniously handing her another, smaller box with a pink ribbon tied around it. The box contained a set of earrings, pear cut citrine surrounded by tiny diamonds.

"These are beautiful as well. Thank you." Nori hugged him. He grudgingly let her, his body tensing as she wrapped her arms around him. She seemed happy with her gifts but Bran felt annoyed by the whole process. He should have just sent the gifts to her apartment or given them to Brennan to give to her. Her reaction was entirely appropriate, but he couldn't deal with it, he just wanted to go to sleep.

Nori was pleased with her gifts, and with the effort Bran was making. She knew he'd been struggling and was glad that he'd tried for her sake. That night they didn't have sex and she lay there in the dark, watching him huddled on the other side of the bed. He hugged himself in his sleep, drawing his own warmth in closer.

"Bran, don't forget you need to go to the doctor today." Nori was heading to her office as they entered work. "I know I told Ruvena, but don't fuss at her when she makes you go."

"Alright." He said gruffly. He went to the appointment, expecting it to be a physical, to see his regular doctor but wound up at the eye doctor. Vaguely, he remembered talking about his eyes being bothersome some time ago, but he'd always had decent vision. It was just the strain from all the work wearing on him, but Nori had made him make an appointment. She had abysmal vision and recommended her doctor.

The doctor was a plain man, bald and chunky but not unattractive. Bran looked at his hand, suddenly envious of the wedding band on it, the security of having someone that always would always love unconditionally, be supportive. The doctor asked after Nori and Bran merely shrugged and said she was busy as always.

"Ah yes, Nori's always out to change the world from the inside out." The doctor remarked and it reminded him of what he'd said after Saemus died. Nori was a lot like Saemus in some ways, the idealism, her values. He thought back to the time they'd all had dinner together and how the two of them had walked away, talking about the environment.

After the brief exam, Bran waited in the darkened room for the doctor to come back. This was a waste of his time, his vision had always been fine. It wasn't often that he wanted to go to work now, but he would rather be there than here, letting this strange doctor and his weird machines blow puffs of air into his eyes. Seriously, who wouldn't blink during that test? He'd had to take it several times before the doctor was satisfied. After the second time he'd nearly walked out.

"You're going to need reading glasses messere, especially in a job like yours where you look at the computer a great deal of the time. It's not a problem, they aren't even prescription. We can get you some from our stock and have them fitted before you leave." The doctor told him after the exam.

The words hit Bran like a punch. All he heard was his doctor saying that he was old and his vision was going. Nori would have to hold him up as he hobbled around. Why was he with her? She was young and beautiful and he was an old man in glasses. She probably looked like his nurse when they went out together.

Armed with his new glasses - the mark of his decline into old age, he went back to the office. At the end of the day he sent Nori an email telling her to go to her own apartment that night. He couldn't bear to look at her with his new glasses. When she came to say goodnight she asked about the his visit to the doctor. He told her about his glasses but refused to show her, getting angry and balking when she asked.

"Bran, I think you need to see someone about this. About Saemus." She said patiently, waiting for him to respond. When he continued to ignore her she went on. "You can't do this on your own. I know."

"You don't know. He was like a son. It could have been my boy."

"And it wasn't. Jason is still here. Have you talked to him since Saemus died or have you been wallowing in your own depression?"

He had no answer for her and eventually she turned and left, saying goodnight softly to him as she stood in the doorway. As she went, he loved her for being right but he hated that she was nearly always right.

Things hadn't been right between the two of them for some time, and Nori knew it had to do with death. Not just Saemus's but of the inevitable fear that cripples people when they realize that they too will die one day. She sympathized with Bran, for she'd felt the same thing when her father died. Her Father was strong, smart, her hero and he'd been taken from her by a foul cancer that ate through his bones. Nori had come to terms with her loss, but it took a long time to even stop being afraid and angry.

He came to her apartment and they stood in the middle of her living room, her paused video game stuck motionless on the screen. Bran looked over at the television, trying to discern what she was playing without asking.

"We should talk." He said to her, his hands digging into his pockets. Instead of looking at her, he was looking at the ground, at some point behind her right shoulder or back at her paused game.

"What about?" Nori said, guarded in her response.

"This isn't working anymore, Nori. We're not getting along. You're too young for me."

"Since when did you decide that?" She asked, her eyes narrowed. He sighed, covering his face with his palm in a gesture that was familiar to her now. He did it when he needed time to think.

"It's more apparent now. You need someone that's not me, someone more like you, idealistic and young."

"You mean like Saemus. This is about him." Nori's arms were crossed against her chest, protective and defensive. Bran didn't know how to react to her statement, but she was right that he was thinking of Saemus when he said it, so he changed tactics.

"Don't you want children?"

"Did your penis age overnight? Does it no longer work?"

"I'm not going to argue with you. This just isn't going to work out anymore." He finished.

"Don't I get a say in this?" She asked him and he shook his head at her, turning away slightly. Her hand went to his and she grabbed him, holding his clenched hand in hers as she spoke again.

"Bran, don't do this. Give yourself some more time and talk to a doctor." Nori implored, real anguish in her eyes as she realized that he really meant to leave her.

"I'm sorry Nori, I'm so sorry." He said and leaned over to kiss her cheek. Between them she let their hands drop, letting go of his. She stood stock still, completely shocked that he'd actually broken up with her. She didn't say anything as he left her apartment, standing in place as the door slammed behind him. The first thing she became aware of was her own, high-pitched laughter filling the room around her. Part of her felt so guilty, guilty because she felt so damn relieved.

The next day she'd called Bethany and told her, but didn't take her sister up on her offer to come over, wanting to think. She'd watched Bran spending more nights on his own and withdrawing from her. She wasn't happy now that he'd ended it, but she wasn't at all surprised. In her mind Nori worked on accepting it, getting over the shock, for it was both a heartbreak and a relief but mostly the former. He had to help himself out of this hole, but their split hurt Nori far worse than when she and Anders had fallen apart.

"What are you doing?" Isabela said to her by way of greeting. Nori had been sitting in her bed, staring out of the window when her phone chirped.

"Nothing."

"What's wrong?"

"Bran and I split up."

"That's your boss's boss, the one you've been with since you started working in Kirkwall?"

"It wasn't that long, but yes."

"That's not how Fenris tells it. I'm sorry Nori, I really am. Is there anything I can do, like send you a well-built male dancer or two?"

Despite her sadness, Nori gave a thin laugh. The thought that if she said yes, Isabela would truly send her a couple of well-built male dancers to her apartment made her stop.

"No, I"m alright. I just want to think a bit. It's just happened, so I don't know what it's going to be like at work. I guess I'll just have to prepare myself to see him every weekday until I find a new job."

"Why should you get a new job? He's the one who sucks!"

"Because he's basically the Viscount now. And he doesn't suck, well he does for breaking up with me, but he's not in a great place either. Saemus, the Viscount's boy was like a son to him. Maybe it won't be too bad." Nori was sure she wasn't convincing Isabela or herself for that matter.

"Maker. Thank you for reminding me why I avoided relationships until now. I'll let you mope if that's what you want, but remember my offer for handsome lads right to your door. There's nothing like sex to ease heartache."

"Maybe next time Isabela." Nori said before she hung up. Instead of laying back on her bed, she went to take a bath. At least she could immerse herself in sweet smelling bubbles and try to forget for a moment.


	21. The One He Sent Away

It didn't take long for everyone at work to realize that the two of them weren't together anymore. Sebastian became a pool of sympathy, ecstatic at his perceived second chance with Nori and at the opportunity to say _I told you so_. Even Brennan treated Nori with kid gloves for a few days, until Nori begged her to act normal. Nori put on her best face, but she was distracted and sleeping poorly.

There was a group of assembled assistants standing around Brennan while she spoke, including Sebastian's assistant and Ruvena but when Bran drew closer Brennan stopped talking abruptly. He nodded at the group as they fixed their collective eye on him and he could feel the malevolence pulsing from them. _Ah, so this is how it is going to be_ , he thought sadly. He knew why they were mad at him, why he was the bad guy. It hadn't escaped his notice that Nori sometimes came out of the ladies room with red, puffy eyes.

"Messere." Brennan said in acknowledgment of his nod, but somehow had managed to infuse the word with a disrespect that no epithet could match.

Bran moved on, ignoring the assembled group as best he could. He noted that Nori wasn't with them and probably had no knowledge of their banding together against him, but it made him mad at her all the same. Brennan was her assistant, she needed to keep her in check.

Sebastian called Nori for her annual review about a week after she'd been single and Nori knew that she was in for his gloating.

"Nori, come in." He waved her into the room with all the grace of an air traffic controller on speed as she closed the door behind her.

"Sebastian, you're looking handsome today." She decided that she might as well flirt with him, it might even distract her.

"You are too kind my lady." He said and she could almost see his chest puff out a bit.

"How are you?" He asked solicitously, looking into her eyes.

"Better now." Nori cooed at him. "It's so nice to know that you care dear Sebastian."

"It would be remiss of me not to be concerned for my friends, especially after my warnings were so heedlessly ignored." Nori hitched her smile up, seething. So he was still upset about her initial refusal. She could recover from this, she thought to herself and she cast her eyes downward, looking up at him through her lashes.

"You were so kind Sebastian, and I ignored your wisdom. Now I'm paying the price and I feel so foolish. Will you forgive me?" When she asked for forgiveness, she put her hand on his forearm across the desk, rubbing her thumb along the inside of his arm.

"Nori." He leaned in closer to her. "Of course. It's what friends do." He cleared his throat. "Now let's get back to your review, that's why you're here isn't it?"

"Among other reasons." She gave him a coy smile.

"Yes, you know you've been doing a great job..." His voice got lost in the rising tide of sickness she felt welling within her from flirting with him. She spent the rest of the meeting alternating between flirtatious and contrite.

She did get her raise, and a bonus from the Viscount. Sebastian also had the authority to give her a bonus but he withheld it _pending review_. There was no doubt in her mind that the review was her continued contrition for dating Bran. Fortunately, that wouldn't be hard to fake and she went back to her office, slightly richer but feeling vastly emptier.

It was around this time that Bran noticed that the cold behavior had stopped for the most part. He was getting used to hearing groups of people stop whispering when he drew near, but he had endured worse. What he wasn't expecting was when Ruvena was out sick that Brennan was cordial to him as she helped fill in. She wasn't her usual talkative self, but she wasn't anywhere near the icy glares and dripping disrespect she had been before.

"Varric, tell me the truth, what's going on?" Bran asked of the speechwriter after a meeting.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Varric asked pointedly.

"Just tell me."

"Well messere, if she didn't have such a good heart then your coffee would be cold and your copies not collated." Varric stated in his usual poetic way.

"What do you mean?"

"Nori went to the assistants at their weekly meeting and spoke to them. She told them what it was like to lose her dad, and how much Saemus meant to you. Did you know Malcolm?" Varric asked, interrupting himself.

"Not very well."

"She's a lot like him. He helped me after, well after my brother fucked up. Bartrand used to want to be like him, tried to emulate his mannerisms and speech patterns to curry favor with the crowds, but there's some roles you can't grow into no matter how hard you try. Anyway, he would have been proud, I'm told there wasn't a dry eye in the room. Nori said that a breakup was nothing in comparison to the utter heartache of losing a child and that everyone should remember that there is no us versus them when we're all on the same team. Then she offered to fire anyone that gave you less than the, and I am quoting here, 'monumental amount of respect he's earned and deserves from all of us'."

"She said that?"

"I am just the messenger messere, but it is an accurate summary of what Lady Hawke said, yes."

"Thank you Varric."

Varric got up and turned from Bran, wanting to say more but not exactly knowing how to say it. It wasn't the first time he'd felt like that around the man, but he just didn't know how to say _she's the one, even I can see that_ , without sounding like he was prying. The man was hurting and though he and Bran were friendly, they weren't good friends. If they were, maybe he'd take him out and buy him a drink, ease him into the _she's the one_ talk he needed to hear. But he didn't think Bran had many friends outside of the Viscount and that man was hurting even more than Bran. All he could do was hope this resolved itself before Nori inevitably moved on.

* * *

Even weeks after things ended with Nori, Bran didn't know what to do with himself. When she had been there, he felt stifled, cornered by her mere presence but now that he was alone, he found himself just pacing aimlessly.

In need of food he went out, getting a table at a restaurant nearby. He used to frequent it before he'd been dating Nori, and he'd taken her there a few times, but she'd preferred for him to cook. He'd happily indulged her but it made it harder for him to even walk into his own kitchen now, he half expected her to be sitting on one of the bar stools waiting for him.

"Welcome back!" One of the perky waitresses recognized him and guided him to a corner booth.

"Will Lady Hawke be joining you messere?"

"No, it's just me thank you." He hadn't meant to sound like a sullen teenager when he'd said it, but it came out that way. The cheerful girl asked him no more questions, only drifted away after telling him that his server would be around soon.

"Good evening messere Bran! Would you like to order or are you waiting for someone?"

"It's just me tonight." He was tired of saying that whenever he went someplace without Nori. Bran ordered, drinking just enough alcohol to fuel his self-pity as he pushed his food around the plate.

When he got home, he felt like a stranger amongst his own things. He wanted to call Nori and just listen to her voice to let it wash over him and make him forget the hurt he felt like he wore, a suit of sorrow. But he couldn't, he felt like he was finding comfort in a child, he might as well go and cradle the lifeless ashes that was once Saemus. It struck him that that's all that would be left of anyone, all the personality and spirit gone and they'd just turn to dust. Bran couldn't work and nothing he tried distracted him. He simply sat and stared at his walls for hours, trying not to think of Saemus as he'd seen him in the hospital, the boy that could have been his own son. Young enough to be an adult, but foolish enough to still be a child. It was that thought that kept him from calling Nori.

Nori didn't feel like going to her Mother's house that weekend, but she knew if she didn't her Mother would show up at her apartment and start pestering her. She postponed coloring her hair and put on some relatively clean sweatpants before heading over to Old Hightown by bus.

"Norina, why didn't you call? I would have picked you up." Leandra chided her when she walked through the door. Nori simply shrugged and walked silently past her mother to the dinner table. Her mother knew the signs of her heartache, but didn't pry, knowing that it would make Nori lash out. She was glad that she'd come for dinner, at least she wasn't shut up alone in her apartment.

Merrill was there as usual, but Bethany and Keran were absent. Nori groaned. It would be an unpleasant meal if it was just her, Mother, Carver and Merrill. She slid down in her seat and said nothing, resisting the urge to pull the hood of her jacket over her head. Carver kissed Merrill on the forehead as he sat down next to her.

"Your elderly boyfriend broke up with you."

"Shut the fuck up Carver." Nori hissed.

"If you want, I'll take his medic alert bracelet and kick out his fake hip."

"Carver, stop." Merrill pleaded, her green eyes huge as she looked at him. She was empathetic to Nori's distress.

"If I jump out at him from behind a bush, will he have a heart attack?" Carver sniggered as their mother served dinner.

"He's forty-fucking-two, not eighty-two. Excuse me for not being a shitty person who asked to see his license before I fell in love with him."

"Norina. Carver. Stop that this instant." Their mother used the tone of voice that meant business. Even as adults they obeyed without comment.

Nori slumped further in her chair, picking at the food in front of her. Most of the time she wasn't depressed about Bran, more resigned to it. It made her heart hurt, but she found solace in creating a world without him in it. Things took more effort, but they always did when she was sad, no matter the source of the sadness. She knew that from when she and Anders had split up. She'd get over it, but doubted she'd ever stop caring about him.

After dinner, Nori was hugging them as she said goodbye. When Carver watched Merrill lean in and say something to his sister, he saw pain flash across her face again before they embraced. Merrill had her small, pale, hand intertwined with Nori's bigger, manicured one, while they spoke quietly, and he looked at them. Anger bubbled in him, anger at Nori for being so stupid not to see the inevitable and at Jason's dad for hurting his sister. Jason was a few sizes bigger than him, but Carver was faster. He bet he could pull of punching him in the face for his bastard father and running off.

"Nori, I'm sorry. I hate seeing you like this." Carver mumbled to her when she came to hug him goodbye.

"I know. You are such a well-meaning asshole." She said and he laughed.

"Gah, now I feel like Gamlen." Carver said referring to their uncle that still harbored a childish grudge against their mother. He wasted his money on cheap liquor and hookers in a state of perpetual adolescence while whining about not being his parents favorite. He was fifty-one years old.

He hugged her again and she gave him a fierce hug back, forgiving him wordlessly. Her mother gave her a ride home, concerned about her waiting for the bus at night. They didn't speak, but listened to Leandra's favorite bossa nova as she drove. It made her think of being in Starkhaven with Bran.

Isabela and Fenris were waiting in the lobby of her apartment building when she returned. Isabela looked relieved when she saw her and Fenris looked more than a little grumpy.

"There you are. We've been waiting for you for twenty minutes. I know this is unexpected, but since when do I make plans? So are you going to invite us up for a drink?" She held up a brown paper bag and it clanked ominously.

"Come on then." Nori felt tired after dealing with Carver's insolence but brought the pair into the elevator with her, waving at the the watchman sitting at his desk nearby as she did. The three of them went upstairs and Isabela tried to help Nori drink away her sorrows, regaling Fenris with tales from their year in Ferelden.

"And then I kissed Nori right in front of the whole bar. We got free drinks too."

"Do you know what happened after that?" Nori was still maudlin. "My father had to pay the photographer three thousand sovereigns for that picture so it didn't make it into the press. I forgot I was the daughter of a politician."

"We made up for it though later on. Do you remember that time under the table?" Isabela gave a bawdy chuckle. "I thought you were a virgin."

"You were wrong, but if memory serves correctly you did take my brother's virginity in Val Royeaux."

"What are you talking about?" Fenris asked.

"I was doing graduate work in Orlais for a term and Carver and Beth came to visit. Isabela met my brother and did away with his pesky virginity." Nori actually started laughing.

"So you two have been together?" Fenris looked more interested in that part than the part about Carver.

"Sure. Nori's always a good time."

"Hey! I'm great in bed." She gave Isabela a look. Even though she knew she was being baited, she didn't like the thought of being standard service in between the sheets. She'd brought Bran to his knees more than once.

"Shall we prove it to Fenris then?" Isabela challenged. Nori nodded gamely. Why not? Fenris was attractive, she trusted Isabela enough to do her again and her heart felt like it would never mend after Bran rejected her. She needed some mindless sex to stop moping so much. The alcohol Isabela had so thoughtfully supplied roared that it was a great idea and she felt a flush as Isabela beckoned to her.

Nori slid towards Isabela on the couch and kissed her, taking in her slightly recognizable taste. She wasn't interested in putting on a show for Fenris, instead groping Isabela's ample breasts through her shirt and kissing her hungrily. When they broke apart, both heads turned towards Fenris. He looked like he'd just opened a box full of money and beer.

"Let's take this to my bed." Nori said, getting to her feet and offering her hand to Fenris. He accepted, letting her pull him up the stairs.

The alcohol was wearing off Nori and she was starting to feel alone, despite her the attentions of Isabela and Fenris. Fenris felt different, he was too short and she never got the sense of rightness she got when Bran filled her. When she glanced back at him and saw his lithe, tattooed body instead of freckles and reddish brown hair she had to close her eyes against the rising tide of memories. She just missed Bran and would trade the purely physical pleasure she felt right now to be sleeping tucked into his arms again.

When they left the next morning Nori sobbed in her shower as she washed off the mixture of sex and sweat. Even though she'd enjoyed herself, she felt like she'd lost something. Her head felt heavy and woolen from the drink, her heart somehow even more broken than before and as she cried, she thought of how tired of crying she was. It felt like she had been either crying or close to crying ever since that night at the hospital.

Bran tossed and turned in his sleep, unable to settle himself. He gave a start when he felt her warm lips around his cock, her tongue gently teasing the tip. A rasp of joy at her unexpected touch came grudgingly from his lips and he let her continue.

Her hot mouth covered his shaft and he felt himself grow harder inside of her, unfurling as her tongue slid up and down him. She sucked, forceful alternated with gentle, her hands pumping at the base of him. He felt her fingers playing about his sac, and her tongue swiped across them on one of her passes down his cock. Bran began to move his hips, thrusting into her mouth as he got closer to release, her hands moving faster now as she sucked him relentlessly. Finally he burst, and with it he awoke sticky with his own fluid. Nori wasn't there anymore; he'd conjured her in his dreams.

He'd tried to take home a waitress a few nights before but he found he couldn't be bothered with her, losing interest before even inviting her back to his house. The only woman he wanted was the one he sent away. Bran got up, slightly disgusted with his mind for tricking him and got into the shower. He wanted to get some sleep before the sun rose.


	22. Bran and Jason

When Nori went into the office on Monday, Fenris was already waiting for her. He was standing awkwardly outside her door, looking conspicuous as he tried to avoid attention. Nori sighed inwardly when she saw him, already regretting it even more than getting involved with Bran. Bad decisions concerning her co-workers were becoming her forte, she thought blandly as she approached him, and she thought she might as well hang it all and sleep with Sebastian if she really wanted to make bad work decisions.

"Nori. Hi. How are you?"

"Fenris, everything is fine." She tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice as she opened the door to her office and he followed her in. "Isabela and I...well you weren't the first. It was fun. Go back to your office."

"Are you sure everything will be okay? It won't be strange between us now will it?" Nori had her back to him, was hanging up her coat after turning on her computer.

"It will be if you keep loitering around my office. It's fine." She said evenly. Normally she'd say something more reassuring but she could hear someone coming down the hall towards them.

"Hello there Nori, Fenris. If I'm not interrupting, may I see you for a moment Nori?" Sebastian butted in, knowing full well that he was interrupting.

"Of course Sebastian." Nori fluttered sycophantically at the man, who was wearing a shirt in a pale lime color paired with khaki colored trousers. Fenris backed from the room as Nori added "Can we walk and talk? I have a breakfast meeting."

Sebastian held his arm out to her and she grabbed her things, reluctantly taking his arm as they walked. Bran saw them walking through the building and it stopped him in his tracks. Recently he'd resumed his vigil of waiting for Nori to come in so he could watch her cross the lobby. He heard Nori laugh slightly too loud and saw her incline her head towards Sebastian, but instead of jealousy he felt pity.

He knew Nori well enough to know when she was acting. She may be putting on a superb performance for Sebastian, but he hadn't heard her really laugh. He could recall the arousing sound of her husky chuckle, the unrestrained giggles, the lilt of her true laughter, the kind that made her dark brown eyes dance. Whatever she was doing now was purely to play for the fool walking next to her. With that thought, Bran did flare with anger, wondering if Sebastian had been chasing her again or giving her a hard time after they'd broken up. He'd go ask Brennan just to make sure, now that she was civil to him again.

Jason showed up unexpectedly that weekend, wanting to spend time in Kirkwall. Bran was curious as to why his son was leaving campus for the weekend, but he welcomed him in his guest room. When Jason came to his father's office to get the spare key to his brownstone, Bran gave him Nori's key, the one Brennan had returned to Ruvena in an envelope right after he'd ended it. It still had a butterfly key chain attached to it, engraved with the name of her favorite shop, the one that had given it to her as keepsake. Jason raised his eyebrows at the dainty charm but said nothing, taking the keys and lingering in the alcove outside to flirt with Ruvena. Jason stopped in to say hello to the Viscount, talking with him for an hour before he reemerged. It was clear that he missed Saemus even if they had grown apart.

His son and Saemus had become friends as children, Jason taking on the role of protector for the smaller Saemus. As they got older Jason was more into his athletics than the protests and demonstrations that Saemus favored, but they remained friends. Bran could hardly recall the service for Saemus, grief blurring his memories, but he remembered his son bringing a flyer for a group that Saemus had given him and setting it in the symbolic pyre they burned for Andrastians after their cremation.

"Since when do you play video games?" Jason asked his father when he came home that Friday night. He was parked in front of the TV, playing one of the games he hadn't gotten around to giving back to Nori. Next to him was an empty bag of popcorn - another Nori thing left in his house. Bran watched as he sliced the head off an alien with a laser gun and realized that he wasn't as good as Nori. He'd seen her playing so fast it seemed like her fingers were a blur. Just by looking at his weapon, Bran was sure his son had missed some upgrades.

"Those are Nori's games." Bran finally answered.

"Oh right. I forgot about your girlfriend." Jason hadn't forgotten, just had been unwilling to bring her up.

"We're not together anymore." Bran shrugged off his suit jacket and walked through the room, letting Jason turn his attention back to the game.

"Got any beer, Dad?" Jason shouted after him. He knew his son drank, but after the death of Saemus, Jason preferred less than before, he'd started to be more careful about his alcohol intake.

"Are you going out tonight?" Bran asked carefully.

"No." Jason answered truthfully. There was nothing to do in Kirkwall, he just wanted to get out of his crappy apartment.

"Here." Bran handed him a cold bottle of beer when he came back in the room after changing out of his suit. He opened his own beer and took a sip, absently watching Jason play the game again.

He had played this one once or twice before, but he'd felt like he was slowing Nori down so he opted out. None of the games had been touched since they'd broken up and he'd forgotten all about them when he had hastily packed her things for her. There had been so many damn shoes that he had to make three trips to his car to bring them all to her apartment.

"You want dinner?" Bran asked eventually.

"Ordered two pizzas before you got here."

"Good, good." He replied idly. Jason looked at his father and felt for him, frowning at the sight his dad was in front of him. He looked tired and overworked, with sadness underneath it all. He didn't know why his dad had split with his girlfriend, but Jason knew it still bothered him.

"Dad, why'd you and Nori Hawke break up?" Jason finally asked. The question had been on his mind since he'd come into the house and noticed that his dad still had her stuff around and there were pictures of her up. It upset Jason, seeing his dad finally in a relationship but knowing it was over.

"There were a lot of reasons." Bran lied, knowing there was really only one. He didn't want to tell his son he had started seeing a psychiatrist to deal with his depression. "I'm too old for her."

"Did she say that?"

"No, never. I broke up with her." Jason was surprised when his dad admitted it, he thought it had been the other way around. He struggled with his shock for a moment before formulating something to say to Bran.

"Look Dad, I don't mean to be rude, but have you met her? She was always more like Carver and Beth's mom than their own mom was. Their parents were busy a lot of the time and she kind of filled in." Jason said. His father stayed impassive, contributing nothing.

"When did you break up?"

"About month after Saemus died. I couldn't really get past the fact that she wasn't that much older than you and he." Bran was contemplating his beer, feeling low when he heard Jason make a dismissive noise.

"Dad, Saemus would be the last person that would object to you being with Nori Hawke. He would think it was awesome. I think it's awesome. We didn't even go to school together, even the Hawke twins are two years older than me and Saemus." Jason thought for a moment and then added. "She's the only person I've ever met that seemed as smart as you. If her age bothered you so much, then why'd you start dating her?"

"I just liked her. It didn't seem important at the time."

"It's not important now." Jason insisted as the doorbell rang. He got up and went to get the pizzas he'd ordered, leaving his father to contemplate his words. Jason had unknowingly said the same thing as his doctor when he'd talked about Nori. He hadn't wanted to give it much thought but hearing Jason say it added weight to the words.

Bran didn't work on every Saturday anymore but had an appointment to see his newest doctor that morning. The psychiatrist was a man named Hubert, with an Orlesian accent and a receptionist named Elegant. Bran sat in the waiting room alone, thumbing through an outdated copy of a magazine that no sane person would ever order a subscribe to about the intricacies of celebrity mating habits. As his boredom grew, he looked around the tiny space, taking in the navy blue chairs and carpet in the same shade. It was as if the decor of the room mirrored his boredom.

"Is your name really Elegant?" He asked the blond receptionist, who was sitting in her seat playing solitaire on her computer.

"Is your name really Bran?" She fired back, with a look that showed just how annoyed she was that she had to acknowledge him.

"My deepest apologies, Lady Elegant." Bran said snidely.

"Come on in Bran." Hubert was standing in the doorway that led back to his patient room. As usual, he was dressed in expensive imported Orlesian clothes that seemed garish to Bran's eyes. He guessed that Hubert was around his age, with dark skin and a head full of dark hair.

"How are you this week?" Hubert asked him once they were seated behind the closed door. It was how he always started off sessions, even though he usually had a question in mind.

"My son is here visiting me. It's been good to have company."

"You're lonely since you ended your relationship?" Hubert asked, but it wasn't really a question.

"Of course, I love Nori, but that's over."

"Why?"

"We've gone through this."

"Indulge me again." Hubert said, maddeningly smug as he sat across from Bran.

"Because she's too young for me."

"Ah, but then you admitted that your age difference wasn't your true reason, but that you were afraid after the death of Saemus."

"If you know this, why are we talking about it?"

"You're not done with it. We'll talk about until you are done with it. Not that you're making it easy - it's easier to get answers from a horse."

"Have you truly tried to get answers from a horse before?"

"This isn't our first session together, no." Hubert replied. Bran gave a short laugh while he tried to formulate an answer to Hubert's real question.

"Yes, I want her to come back, but I hurt her. She has no reason to, and I don't blame her."

"Have you considered that she might still love you as well? That's probably the best reason to go back to someone." Hubert looked at him over tented fingers and Bran looked down at the carpet to escape his gaze, knowing that he hadn't escaped scrutiny. After a few moments Hubert finally said "Let's move on for now. Your son is here visiting, that's very good for the both of you."

Bran was silent as he considered what Hubert said. Nori didn't seem like she still loved him, she wasn't trying to see him or even nice to him at work. She was just, _normal_. But he knew she wouldn't demean herself by chasing him after he'd pushed her away, so it was up to him. He'd actually have to ask her, which was almost more frightening than the thought of her hating him.

When he got home he opted to spend the rest of the day with Jason, talking to his son, asking about his life. He felt like he should have done it before, invited him down to talk. Jason was normally busy with his training but this summer he was going to summer school, opting out of the summer baseball training so he could focus on his classes. They played video games and drank beer, watched sports and talked. The weekend had done much to raise his mood and he thought that Jason seemed a little happier too.

"Hey Dad." Jason was standing the doorway to Bran's room on Sunday afternoon. "May I borrow something?"

Bran turned to look at his son, and felt a flush of pride. He took in the wide shoulders and strong build of his son, and was amazed that they shared any traits. His son was powerfully built, but shared his facial features topped with his ex-wife's dark brown hair. Bran was in good shape but it was nothing compared to the bulky muscle that his son had. If he and Jason ever tried to spar physically, Bran would be able to do nothing but scream for help while his son trounced him.

Jason was no scholar, but he was doing well in school and of course, very well with his athletics. Bran could claim no ability in sports other than to enjoy them, but his son was always in excellent shape and dedicated to training. They'd had a good time together this weekend, he found unexpected solace in their discussions.

"What do you need Jace?" He asked his son.

"A camera for a class project?"

"Yeah, let me get one for you." Bran put down his book and got out of bed. He had a new camera that he'd just gotten on his desk, but he had yet to take a picture on it himself, so he opted to let Jason take one of his older cameras. He ejected the memory card and put in a different one, checking to make sure it was blank and changing the settings to automatic. When he was satisfied, he handed it to his son.

"Thanks Dad. It's not hard to use is it?"

"No, I changed the settings. It should do most of the work for you, but don't use the flash unless you are in low light."

"Right." Jason said, not really paying attention.

Bran took the memory card he'd taken from the camera and put it into his newer model. He turned it on, unsure of what pictures were on it. A wash of sadness flowed over him as he saw Nori. She had taken pictures and he'd never uploaded them to his computer. He saw the pictures of himself and barely recognized the much happier version, there were pictures of her, sitting at his desk, smiling up at him from the pillow next to his in her cute pajamas, looking sleepily at the camera with an easy smile. There were the awful pictures that she took of the two of them by holding the camera at arm's length, the much better one he'd taken when he'd set up the tripod and practice shots from when he'd tried to teach her about his hobby. He missed her so much it created a hollow ache inside of his chest.

They worked together and he could see her everyday if he wanted, but there was little point. She never showed any outward sign of distress at their breakup besides a slight stiffening whenever she had to interact with him. They were more formal than strangers now and each encounter was too heartbreaking for him. He watched her in the meetings, the meetings where she used to sit next to him. Now she was always down the table, next to Varric, always hiding behind that veil of hair unless it was her turn to talk. All of her reports, the ones she used to give to him personally came by email or through Sebastian. Whenever she talked to the Viscount now, she went alone, no longer needing or requesting his presence. Things had changed and she'd effectively relegated him to the role he was supposed to have in the first place, distant from hers.

It had been silly to fall in love with her, unusually foolish for someone so careful about managing things, but Bran never had much sense when it came to his own love affairs. He thought he was doing the right thing by leaving her alone. He pushed her away to find someone more suitable, but more often than not the thought of her with someone else made his blood boil. It was difficult for him to accept their separation, even though he had initiated it. Whenever he thought of getting her back, he couldn't bring himself to do it, he didn't want to bring her down again. Bran knew he'd been awful to her and he couldn't think of a way to make it up to her.

He put down the camera and put it back in his camera bag, trying to put distance between himself and the pictures. The distance only served to fuel his memories and imagination, wondering what she was doing now, what she was wearing, and wishing she was in his bed again as they'd spent so many Sunday afternoons.

"Dad, all of the pictures are black!" Jason interrupted his thoughts.

"Take off the lens cap Jace!" Bran yelled back and he heard Jason guffaw at his own mistake. He'd always been good-natured and easygoing; so different from his parents.

After dinner Jason had to leave, starting the hour long drive back to campus so he could go to class the next day. He had been glad for the company this weekend, even if it had been unexpected.

"Tell your mother I said hi." Bran said to him as he helped his son load his now clean laundry into his trunk.

"I will. She saw you on TV a few months ago, she said you looked good for once." Jason laughed. She was no doubt talking about the televised statement the Viscount had made to the Assembly. Nori had dressed him for that, in that expensive Orlesian tie she'd gotten him for his Name Day.

"How are your siblings?" He could never remember what combination of kids his ex-wife had after Jason. For years it bothered him, so he never actually tried to commit it to memory.

"They're doing well. Spoiled little shits like me, but good kids."

"Do you need any money Jason?" Bran asked as his son opened the door to his car.

"Donations are always accepted."

"Use it in good health." Bran said to him with mock seriousness as he handed his son a generous amount of sovereign notes.

The two men hugged and Jason said goodbye to his father as he got in the car, pulling slowly out of the garage as he headed out into the evening. Bran stood back and waved for a while until he couldn't see the car anymore and went back in, hitting the garage door button with the flat of his hand as he went by it. He felt alone, his son was gone and the one woman he wanted was probably sitting on her couch thrashing the shit out of electronic demons while swearing at people online. That he had no way to reach out to her was the worst part for him, he couldn't even figure out where to begin, just like before when he'd lain in bed frustratedly wanting her from afar. No, it was worse this time, much worse because he knew just what he was missing. It was time for a brandy and some suitably melancholy music before bed.


	23. Jason and Nori

The weekend held revelations for Nori, who went out to meet her mother on Saturday after spending a grueling morning at work. The amount of work she been doing had increased ten-fold as of late, gearing up for the new session that was about the begin in the Assembly. Downtime in the Assembly meant that work increased at the Viscount's office and she missed the summer breaks she'd had in Tantervale when she'd worked with Assemblyman Johnsten.

"Hello darling, I am so glad to see you today. There's a sale here!" Her mother said briskly. When Leandra was out, she almost always had an air of business about her, something that Nori liked about going out with her mother. She channeled her efficient, orderly, professional manner that made her feel more like a friend than her mother. Leandra leaned in and gave Nori a kiss on the cheek, heedless of the glow of perspiration on her daughter's skin. The day was hot and sticky and Nori walked the short distance from the bus stop to the store, through air thicker than custard.

In the store, Leandra snapped into action, shopping with a ruthlessness that made proficient seem inadequate. They chatted easily as Nori cooled off in the air conditioned store, just catching up with one another. Leandra picked out several items for herself before turning to Nori, assessing her daughter with a mother's critical eye and deciding that she needed to show off the arm muscles she'd recently developed during her new combat training exercises with Aveline.

"Your efforts are paying off wonderfully, Nori. You should show them off more, wear something less conservative. How is Aveline?" Her mother asked.

"She was doing well the last time I saw her. I am going to stop in sometime tomorrow to see her and Donnic, it's been far too long since I've visited." Nori answered over the top of the dressing room where she was trying on one of the items her mother had selected.

Nori came out of the dressing room wearing a belted black tank dress with contrasting white trim. She turned around in the mirror outside the dressing room for her mother to see as she inspected her own reflection. Her mother was correct, her newly defined arm muscles were impressive and the dress set them off, but the dress was clearly a work dress and Nori didn't want to buy yet another thing to wear to work. Leandra came over and pulled the zipper in the back, closing the dress so Nori could see how it properly fit on her frame. It was flattering, the shape of the dress displayed her legs and arms in ample amounts without being revealing, and the slight stretch of the fabric over her hips outlined her figure. Her mother stood back and admired the chic garment as Nori frowned slightly at her reflection.

"Mother, I like this but, I'm not in the mood for work clothes. In fact, I'm not even sure I should buy anymore." Nori turned to face her mother, preparing to confide in her. "I'm thinking about going back to school, so I'm not sure more work clothes are the wisest investment."

"For your doctorate?" Her mother asked as she tugged at the hem of the dress. "It's a pretty dress Nori, let me buy it for you if you aren't sure."

"Alright mom." Nori said with a smile. Her mother always did this when they went shopping, inevitably buying Nori more than she would spend on herself. "Yes, back for my doctorate in Public Administration."

"And you'd leave the Viscount's office?"

"It wouldn't be for a while, I still have to apply. I have time before the end of his term, but if he wanted to serve again, I would have to leave."

"Speaking of the Viscount dear..." Nori turned to look at her mother, taking in the familiar features that now wore a strange, unreadable look. Leandra looked like Bethany more than Nori, but they had the same shape of nose and smooth, unblemished skin, but Leandra's daintier features were topped with grey hair. Watching her mother bite her bottom lip uncertainly as she looked off into the distance, she was sure that Leandra hadn't heard the last thing she'd said. Nori stood there, simply waiting for her mother to say whatever was on her mind.

"Go back in the dressing room, I'll help you unzip the dress."

Once they were back in the tiny dressing room her mother leaned in to whisper to her as she unzipped the dress.

"Well the thing is, Marlowe and I have become great friends and I was wondering if you'd mind if I saw him."

"What do I care if you see the Viscount?" Nori asked quickly, uncomprehending. It wasn't until she saw her mother's careful expression in the dressing room mirror, the hope in her eyes that she was trying to disguise that Nori understood - her mother was dating Marlowe or at least, she wanted to.

"Oh mom." Nori turned around and hugged her mother. "He's such a nice, funny guy. I'm glad you two have gotten closer."

"Dear, I'm so relieved, but it's nothing yet, I just wanted to ask." Her mother said as they continued to hug. "I was worried that after Bran, you'd be angry with me. They are still quite close you know."

"They always will be; they're like brothers. Mother, my feelings about Bran don't have a thing to do with you and Marlowe. He's a wonderful man and if he makes you happy, then I'm happy for both of you."

What Nori was trying to say but didn't voice was that both her mother and the Viscount had lost much, and though she was a little surprised that they'd gotten together, it was a good fit. Nori wondered how they had managed to start seeing each other and realized it had probably been her mother's good nature that compelled her to go over to the Viscount's mansion and just knock on the door with a pie in hand or something of the sort.

"Come on Nori, try on that blue dress now. I bet that color will look just beautiful on you." Her mother said, relief and happiness threaded through her voice.

Nori smiled at her mother as she stepped out of the black and white dress and let the blue shift slip over her head. Inside, she was truly happy that her mother was finally dating, but it made her think of the time she'd gone to Marlowe's house with Bran. The memory was one she held dear now, not just because Saemus was gone, but because of all they'd shared that night. The early days of their relationship had been so heady, filled with the promise of love and hope. Her heart skipped a little as she thought on it and Nori locked it away, hoping that her mother got to experience it now.

On Sunday Nori made good on her desire to visit Aveline and she was sitting with Aveline and Donnic who both looked completely exhausted. She hadn't seen her friends in a while and she'd stopped by to drop off some presents she'd picked up for their kids. They'd invited her to stay for dinner and she'd gratefully accepted. After Aveline fed the girls, Donnic went upstairs to try and get them to sleep.

"And so Donnic is actually going to part-time days while I stay full time. Otherwise our childcare costs are too much with his rotating shifts." Aveline was saying as Nori loaded up the dishwasher for the tired mother.

Donnic had been on duty one night when Aveline was paged and she'd wound up taking the babies for Nori's mother to watch while Aveline dealt with the unexpected work. Leandra had been ecstatic that they'd come to her, welcoming the twins and generously giving her assistance but Nori knew the situation frustrated Aveline, who was still having a hard time finding her work/life balance. Whenever Nori went over to visit them she tried to do housework for Aveline so her friend could take a break. Donnic came back down the stairs with a baby monitor in his hand and gave Nori a kiss on the cheek.

"You're such a good one Nori, thanks for doing dishes." He said to her.

"Not a problem." Nori smiled at them, but even to their tired eyes they could how sad she still looked.

"How's work going for you?" Donnic asked Nori. Aveline gave Donnic a sidelong glance, shaking her head almost imperceptibly at him and he didn't mention Bran.

"It's alright, same as always." Nori lied. She wasn't having a hard time with her job, but rather that it had become much more complicated than she'd anticipated.

Following Saemus's death, the Viscount cutback his workload, and there was more, much more for her to do. It made her think of Bran, and she wondered how he was dealing with his own grief and increased work. A small frown crossed her face and she furrowed her forehead as she thought of him. She knew that she could talk to Aveline and Donnic about him, but didn't want to bore them or seem hung up on someone that didn't want her. She hadn't said much to Aveline this visit, having said most of it before when she and Bran first split. All she'd said was that she still missed him but that it was over, focusing instead on the new things she was doing at work. Aveline didn't push her after that.

"I know you two are tired. Thanks for letting me stay this long." Nori said as she gathered up her bag.

"Come back anytime, Hawke. If you have a Saturday off come play with the kids." Aveline offered.

"Maybe I will." Nori waved and left the house, swearing slightly when she felt the sprinkles of rain. She ran to the nearby bus stop hoping that it would come soon.

The rain would soak her new dress, one of the new casual dresses she'd gotten herself for the nearly half-over summer. With her increased work, shopping trips with Mother and Beth had become rare and weekends like this where she could visit friends even more so. She'd made a special trip out with Beth to get this dress when it came in a few weeks ago, after coveting it in a magazine. It was a ruffled red dress with dots all over it, and ribbon sash at the waist, whimsical and light. A light blue car went past her and she thought nothing of it, but it circled and came back, pulling towards the curb as she sat in the covered bus stop.

"Nori?" A faintly familiar voice called her out name. The driver rolled down the window and was revealed to be Bran's son, Jason.

"Jason?"

"Yeah. Dude, get in the car." He said to her as warm rain started pelting down and lightning cracked overhead. She clambered into his car and out of the rain, stammering her thanks. He was playing music, but it was turned down low and all she could hear was the heavy beat thudding in the background.

"You headed home?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I was visiting my friend Aveline but I lost track of time."

"Where's your car?"

"I don't have one. Don't like driving." She mumbled into her own shoulder.

"Oh yeah, Carver said that once. He loved when he got his car because you had to ask him for rides." Jason recalled with a laugh and Nori snorted. She was twenty-two by the time Carver got his license, and going to school in Cumberland. She may have asked him to take her someplace all of twice.

"I live near the Viscount's Keep. In those new _Soaring Towers_ apartments." She offered as he merged back into a lane. There was hardly any traffic out and he had no trouble, navigating the narrow streets easily even through the storm that had grown in just the few minutes since she'd gotten into the car.

"Cool." He said. "It's good that I ran into you, you know, because I just came from my dad's house." Nori felt her defenses raise at the mention of Bran, it seemed like everyone she ran into was talking about him this weekend. Jason looked over at her when they passed under a particularly strong street lamp and saw that she had several grey hairs growing in with the dark ones where she parted her hair. It made him like her more.

"Look." He said, taking a deep breath. "I know it's not my business, but my dad really misses you. I've never seen him like this, not even when my parents got divorced." Nori started to object but he forestalled her, looking over at her with the same almond-shaped brown eyes that Bran had. In the darkness of the car, his resemblance to his father was even more pronounced. But Jason looked like a drawing of Bran with deliberate mistakes, his mouth not as wide, his hair the wrong shade and his face clean-shaven.

"No wait, just listen to me. I know he broke up with you, but it's really killing him. He thought he was doing the right thing but you don't look too happy either." Jason finished. She couldn't argue with him there, she wasn't happy about their breakup, but she didn't know how much she could say to Jason.

"Bran's upset still?" Nori didn't see him at work, she avoided him whenever possible but he'd been noticeably grumpier right after their split. In fact, she hadn't really seen him outside of their weekly meetings in some time and in those he was all business, never letting on about any feelings.

"He's fucking miserable. Give him a call or something if you aren't too mad at him. You can blame me if it doesn't work out again, but you should at least try. Wouldn't it be worth it if everything did work out?" Jason asked her.

"I don't know. Maybe." Nori said softly, amazed at how intuitive Jason was. He pulled up the front of her apartment building and stopped.

"Thanks for the ride, Jason. And for telling me that Bran still cares. It's nice to know at least."

"Goodnight, Nori. Tell Carver I said hi." He said and she nodded.

He waved at her and watched her until she ran inside the giant glass doors of her building. As she ran under the light, he saw that her dress wasn't red with white dots, but that the dots were pale pink. His dad mentioned how she loved her designer clothes and the dress looked pretty expensive, but the colors flattered her. They'd talked about her a great deal this weekend and he knew her far better than she suspected. Jason watched her hips moving back and forth as she ran, thinking that his dad was nuts for letting a gorgeous woman like that go.

But Jason knew his dad and how much he must care about her if he'd even stayed with her for more than a few dates. Thinking about the butterfly key chain, she'd obviously had her own keys to Bran's house, had brought her things over and been upset enough not to come after her video games. She meant a lot to his dad, and from their brief talk, he didn't get the feeling that she was over him either. The sheer amount of her stuff he'd seen at his dad's this weekend indicated that Nori must have been basically living with him. There were still random items of clothes, food he knew his father didn't eat, the video games, just bits of her all around. Letting her go couldn't have been easy for him, even if he did think it was the right thing.

When he was younger and his mother first remarried, pregnant with his younger sister, Jason had asked Bran when he was going to get married again. His father responded, "When I meet a woman that is as smart as she is beautiful." At the time, his ten year old self thought that his dad meant his mom, but later he realized just how picky his father was. Nori was the first woman his dad had seemed like he'd loved since his parents got divorced eleven years ago.

He knew his dad had taken Saemus's death hard, and though he hadn't mentioned it, Jason had spotted the antidepressants on the counter in the kitchen before his dad came home on Friday night. It was why he'd assumed Nori had broken up with him, instead of the other way around. Finding out that her dad sent her away, while he was obviously in love with her let Jason know that his dad wasn't his normal self. Jason turned his music back up and drove off, feeling better about the night after talking to Nori. He hoped she would call his dad, they deserved to be happy.

Jason's visit had made Bran miss Nori more. They'd talked about her all weekend, Jason sometimes forcing Bran to face uncomfortable truths. It was sobering for his son to echo what his therapist had been telling him since their first session. Ultimately he had realized that he couldn't deal with the tailspin he'd been in since Saemus died and sought out the professional help she'd known he'd needed, along with speaking to Marlowe about it. He had no right to expect Nori not to be angry with him or to even want him back after he'd spurned her.

Paralysis gripped him whenever he thought of going to her office to talk to her; in meetings he couldn't meet her eyes. She avoided him as if he had the plague. He wanted to beg her to come back, but couldn't find the words. When he told his son, Jason had helpfully pointed out that Nori would never know if he didn't say anything and she'd eventually move on. Bran couldn't deal with that idea, his head swimming with images of her laughing with some faceless man instead of him. In an effort to rid himself of thoughts of her with someone else, he went into work early. Normally the stillness of the building would ease him into the day, but he couldn't work as he sat behind his desk staring at his door. The tiniest things reminded him of Nori, including his office door.

It was the only time they'd ever had sex in the office. He'd had to go to work on Saturday and Nori had work of her own to finish. He'd expected to be done at noon, but the sun set long before he was finished. Nori had been in her office doing her own work and reading the internet when she went to Bran's office to see about dinner.

He'd pinned her against the door, gathering her skirt around her waist and letting one of her ankles rest on his shoulder. She hadn't been wearing panties and his sheer delight at that surprise caused arousal to suffuse him even as he recalled the memory. She'd gotten slick for him in no time, his finger wiggling around in her as he gave her harsh, biting kisses. He remembered how she'd come around his hand, his fingers making her tremble until she crashed, yelling out his name as her body shuddered against his. They'd both liked the slight rush that came from the idea of getting caught, but there was no one else in the office.

Up against the door, he'd slammed into her, their coupling quick and feral as he worked off his frustration at missing a day with her in favor of work. Her face had worn an expression of pleasure mixed with pain as he fucked her, but she whimpered pleadingly when he pulled away. Nori had gotten to her knees and sucked his cock as he came, her mouth a consolation prize compared to the heaven that lay between her legs.

The sounds of other people arriving made him shut down his idle reflection and he resumed the guilt he always felt for rejecting Nori. Jason's words echoed in his head, telling him that his irrational objections didn't matter. His heart knew it was the truth, but he didn't know how to make it up to Nori now. He sent an email to his son, checking on him and asking for his assistance.

When he finished, turned his head, looking out the large window in his office in time to see a colored leaf fly past, the first sign of autumn as the trees began to change. Had they really been apart for months? As he sat there and contemplated his time alone, a car pulled up and a careworn Dumar exited, making his way into the office. Before it would have strengthened his resolve, told him that he was doing the right thing but now he wondered if he looked like his friend Marlowe, so irretrievably broken. Dumar couldn't get his son back, but Bran could certainly try to get Nori back.

"Ruvena!" Bran shouted, unsure if his assistant was even there yet. She was, having just arrived. When she came into his office she was still wearing the jacket the morning coolness necessitated.

"When Brennan comes in, can you tell her to come see me? Also get me Leandra Hawke on the phone." Bran asked her.

"Sure. Anything else messere?"

"That's all. Thank you, Ruvena." He said as she left his office. Ruvena was shocked, he hardly ever said thank you anymore. She missed the days when he'd been dating Nori Hawke; he'd actually acted like a real person.


	24. You Don't Have to Stay

In all the time that passed since Jason had spoken to her, Nori still didn't have the heart to face Bran at the office, let alone call him and try to have a conversation. She had long since let go of her anger at him, but the sadness held court with her still, and any words of reconciliation went unformed in her mind. Part of her had hoped that if he missed her as much as his son indicated then he just might come to her, but he never did. Nori gave a sigh that was equal parts frustrated and disappointed as she printed out the email invitation she'd just received.

Her email had been full of such things since she'd talked with all those people in Starkhaven, delegates, ambassadors, Members of the Assembly and the like but she'd been turning them down. There was always a ready excuse, she'd been saying she was too busy, or that the timing was bad but truly she never even tried to be a part of anything new because never wanted to deal with talking to Bran. She'd have to ask him for permission to do attend any of these functions and this one she really wanted to do. She'd been asked to speak at an event, a conference for students interested in Public Administration.

The Chief of Staff was currently sitting in the Viscount's office, where the Bran and Marlowe were talking. Marlowe was outlining some of his future plans, about buying a condo once he left the Viscount's mansion.

"I really think that's the best thing since it's just me. I still have the property, the old house my father left me, but it's too big for just me." Marlowe stated firmly. He had been holding onto the house to pass it to his son Saemus, for it had been in the Dumar family for centuries. Sadness tinged the words behind the statement, but also the firm desire not to hold onto it, and so Bran went along with the forward-thinking, even if it felt like they were skirting the issue of why Marlowe wanted to move.

"There's a new building that went up just outside of town, all luxury units. Did you ask Varric about it?"

"Yeah, it's not one of his but he said he'd look into it for me. I don't want to move anywhere without a concierge. When I talked to Nori about she said she loves the one in her building." Marlowe said and Bran recalled the desk that was always staffed at the base of her apartment building. The Viscount had been hoping to provoke Bran into a discussion about Nori, wanting to make his thoughts known to his friend, but the younger man didn't rise to the bait. He said nothing in response to Marlowe's comment, lost in his own memories of the times he'd spent at Nori's apartment building.

"You aren't going to even try are you?" Marlowe asked, his cerulean eyes narrowed at Bran.

"With Nori?" Bran said, surprised that they were talking about her.

"Yes, with Nori. You're just going to let her go when you know you don't have to. Get your head out of your ass, Bran. She's not waiting for you; she's waiting for her heart to mend. I wouldn't wait for you either if you're just going to keep walking around with your tail between your legs."

"Well it's a good thing you and I decided not to date anymore." Bran said.

"I'm serious, Bran. I'm an old man, but you're not, so stop acting like you're my father. Go after her now, because you're running out of time. She's too pretty for you anyway."

"You going to ask her out if I don't?"

"I would if I weren't having drinks with Leandra Hawke this weekend."

"What, seriously?"

"Would the Viscount lie?" Marlowe asked, giving Bran a giant, false grin. He'd seen him give the same grin when asked a stupid question by reporters. Bran snorted in return before answering.

"Don't worry about me. I'm not moving as slow as you think."

"Good. Now get out of my office so I can go home and watch movies in my underpants uninterrupted."

"Maker, I am so glad you didn't invite me over for that. It would require me to wash my eyes with acid afterward." Bran said as he got up from his chair.

Marlowe waved Bran out of his office as he started to pack up for the day. Back in his own office, Bran thought about Nori. When he closed his irritated, weary eyes he could hear her playful voice whispering to him, so unlike the distant, cool tone she used with him now. Remembered shy smiles she'd once bestowed on him flitted into his mind at the unlikeliest of times, making his loneliness more acute now that he was dealing with the grief that had once overwhelmed him. He hadn't been lying to the Viscount when he said he was working on it. He was; he wanted her back, was determined do everything in his power to bring them back together. First, he just had to get her to talk to him again.

Nori left her office with her papers in hand, steeling herself to deal with Bran when she ran into the Viscount. He'd only recently resumed coming to the office full-time and even then he wasn't always inclined to work. She couldn't tell who fared worse these days, Dumar or Bran, since he was acting as Viscount in Dumar's near incapacitation. The Viscount looked less and less connected to the job and Nori could only feel compassion for the man as she saw him leaving for the day.

"Nori, how are you?" The Viscount addressed her on his way out.

He'd never mentioned any connection to her mother, and her mother hadn't brought it up again. Nori wondered what was going on between the two of them before thinking better of letting that thought go too far. If her mother hadn't said it was over, then it was probably going well.

"Very well, thank you, Your Excellency."

"You know, I finally got around to reading that book you contributed to a few years back. It was a magnificent expository piece, very sound arguments." Nori had no idea what he was talking about. She'd contributed pieces to six books and had written the foreword to a biography on her father.

"Thank you. It was a challenge to write."

"Have a good night, my lady." He nodded at her with a smile on the face that had visibly aged since she'd visited him at his house. Marlowe was still quite handsome, but had understandably lost some of his shine. Nori bade him farewell.

Outside of Bran's office, the only way she could describe the scene was organized chaos. Both his assistant and Elthina were working in the recessed alcove in front of his door, bustling about as they tried to control the amount of paperwork between them. Elthina was going back and forth between her desk and Ruvena's as they worked on some sort of checklist.

"Can I see him?" Nori asked Bran's assistant.

"Go on in, but don't mind him if he snaps at you. He's been doing that a lot lately."

She gave a sharp, echoing knock and walked in without waiting for an invitation, pulling the golden knob on the heavy wooden door to close it behind her. Before her was a man who looked his exhaustion and overwork, Bran's tie was loosened, his hair disheveled and she knew he had run his hands through it repeatedly in frustration. His face was grim, tired, pinched and he needed to shave. Nori couldn't recall ever seeing him in such a state before.

"Hey." Nori said by way of greeting, his frenetic, distraught demeanor making her forgo her normal formality.

"Hey yourself." Bran smiled at her and Nori blinked once in surprise; he was wearing his hated glasses. She thought he looked quite handsome, with the dark frames perched on his face, giving him the air of a professor. He looked over the top of them at her and she remembered that they were only for reading. It seemed strange that she could recall that fact but had never seen him in the glasses before.

His voice betrayed his fatigue, it was low and gravelly; a pitch she'd only heard when she'd been staying with him, when she'd been staying up with him. It brought back memories of the two of them, their late nights both working and not and Nori struggled to get her thoughts back.

"I have here an invitation to give a keynote." She handed him the pages with a flourish, letting them flutter down to his desk. He pushed his glasses up his narrow nose and he scanned them, saying nothing. In the silence, her unease grew and she looked everywhere but at him, inspecting her fingernails and the carpet.

"Is it for students?" He finally asked. His eyes were blurring too much to try to read the whole description. He took off his glasses, setting them on the blotter on the desk in front of him.

"Yup."

"You want to do this?"

"Yup."

"Permission granted." He said with a wave of his hand. Nori turned away, but he started to speak again. "You don't have to avoid me you know. I'm not vindictive." Nori raised an eyebrow at the statement and Bran amended it. "Not to you, never with you. You know that."

"I know." Nori agreed. "It's just..." She trailed off, unable to find the words as she stared at the floor. "Get some rest Bran, you look like you were dragged out of the Void." Nori finished and with his short, brittle laugh, she turned away again, ready to go back to her desk now that the dreaded task was done.

Something on the wall caught her eye and she looked over at the picture, obviously a new piece that he'd put in here. It had been months since she'd been in this office, but the picture was both new and oddly familiar to her. Nori turned around, her body pointing slightly towards the photograph, ready to ask him about it when she found that he was standing in front of her. He'd moved like a ghost, with such stealth she never heard a single footfall or the sound of his chair moving away from the desk. She looked up at Bran, and understood that he wanted to keep her there for some reason.

"Are you going to let me go?" She asked in a puzzled tone.

"No. I did that once before and I've regretted it ever since." Bran answered. He was looking down at her, taking in her blue shirtdress and the flat, brandy colored boots he recognized. She'd worn them the day she'd had lunch with him in his office, that Saturday he'd heard her singing.

"We are not going to get into that now." Nori said wearily, pinching the bridge of her nose as she said it.

"When did you change your hair?" He asked softly, leaning towards her and pushing her hair behind one ear, his touch sending electric sparks through her. Her body hummed in response to the light graze of his finger against her ear, and she stood there taking in the smell of him. Nori closed her eyes, standing there with them shut for a moment. Previously, she'd always colored her hair black, but Nori had grown bored with her classic look and went to a professional. She'd promptly cut four inches of length and gave Nori's hair long layers, along with accenting brown highlights to break up the vast swath of black color in her hair.

"Last weekend."

"It's beautiful." His voice was deep and rumbling, coming from within the well of his chest. A chest that was so intimately known to her that she could recall it in astonishing detail even though she'd been deprived of it for months. The sound of his voice made her stomach flip, anticipation and an unwanted feeling of desire filling her. He was standing close to her, closer than necessary she thought frantically. Panic rose within her, not truly caused by Bran, but because her traitorous body was already reacting to his nearness.

"What are you doing?" The question came out in a near squeak from Nori. He gave her a predatory smile as he shifted slightly, moving behind her.

"I'm about to start begging you to come back to me." He purred into her ear. "I made a mistake, one of the worst ones I've ever made when I let you go. Give me another chance Nori." She felt his arms close around her. "I miss you so much. Don't you miss me?"

Reflexively, she leaned into his heated whisper, putting her back against his chest and Bran ran a knuckle down the side of her face. The warm finger traced her jawline before he resumed his whispers. His honeyed words made her want to answer him, to show him just how much she'd missed him. Her eyes closed again as she remembered his touch, and every memory she'd been trying to forget for months came rushing back to her, vivid and persistent, swirling in her mind.

"Tell me you missed me." He demanded softly, his lips just barely grazing her ear.

"It's been awful without you." She confessed in a husky voice, and he planted a kiss to her collarbone. His soft hand swept her hair away and she tilted her head to one side, giving him better access to her neck. Slowly, with excruciating care, he left a trail of kisses on her neck, jaw and face as he slid a hand down her side. The stubble on his cheeks and chin deliciously tickled her skin as he kissed her, the short, bristly hairs pricking and stroking her sensitive skin. His other arm was still wrapped around her waist, strong and steady and she nearly melted into it. Through her dress she could feel the ready hardness of him pressing into her back and he made no attempt to disguise his arousal.

"Come home with me tonight." He said, the words as welcome as they were unexpected. "You don't have to stay, we can just talk if you'd like. Let me make my case, let me make it up to you. Whatever you want, but let's just talk, away from here." Bran whispered against her heated skin, bargaining with her, begging her. She could feel his deep voice more than she could hear it. Every time he spoke, his breath tickled her neck, sending tingles across her body. Nori could feel her normally steady legs shaking, her panties soaked by just this small interlude. In her head a deviant little spark danced, telling her to go with him tonight back to the life she'd been so reluctantly withdrawn from even though she knew she shouldn't give in so quickly.

"I don't know." Nori said, her voice shaky as she pulled away from him, releasing herself from the chains of his arms. Her body protested the end of his kisses, and she felt cold as she walked a few steps towards his couch and away from his warm body. Looking out the windows behind his desk, the sun was setting in a glorious burning haze of colors. It was the evening already; he'd want her answer soon.

"Think about it. If you don't want to come with me, don't get in the car." He offered, and it sounded so simple, so easy when he said it. Her head swam with his proposition, with all the feelings his touch, the touch she'd missed so much, had just brought forth in her. In an effort to regain her clarity she headed for the door, needing to put distance between herself and Bran. She didn't want him to see her hands shaking, to know the effort it was taking to just draw breath into her lungs, to see the unsteady legs that turned to pulp as he kissed her.

"I'll consider it." She said before exiting, and he heard the soft click of the door behind her. Bran smiled to himself alone in his office, ignoring the insistent throb in his trousers. At least he'd gotten her to think about it. This morning she wouldn't even talk to him.

Outside of his door, Nori took several deep, shaky breaths in an effort to calm herself. Heart pounding relentlessly in her ears, she looked down at her hands to see the papers she'd shown Bran were now covered in the sweat of her palms, clenched and wrinkled. Stiffly, she walked towards her office, away from the alcove where Ruvena had just returned, smiling at Nori briefly as she went back to her work.

Before Nori turned down the hall to her office, she looked out at the front of the Keep putting her hands on the railing. Beneath her hands she felt the cool, lacquered wood atop black wrought iron rails as she looked out on colors coming through the giant windows from the sunset. She closed her eyes lightly, still able to see the light even with her eyelids shut and she let the splendors of the dying sun wash over her. Nori hung onto the railing as if it were a lifeline before lifting her hands away slowly, letting go of the rail that kept her safe.


	25. Lenora

"Ruvena, I'm going home." Bran said in a rush. "Call Nori and tell her to meet me outside in an hour." He said to her as she picked up the phone. "No, make it an hour and a half." He amended then hurried past her desk with his bag in hand, really going home. Ruvena was surprised.

"You're going home? Already? I'll call your car."

"I'll take a cab. Tell the car to come to my house and pick me up in an hour and fifteen minutes." He bent over her desk and scribbled something on a piece of paper. "Send a dozen red roses to here. The card should say what I've written down." He was hedging his bets with the roses but he had a feeling he was right.

"Alright, goodnight messere." Ruvena said, her confusion clear on her face. She looked down at the paper and wondered about the note. He was up to something and Ruvena had no idea what. That alone was enough to frighten her.

There was a store within walking distance of Bran's house, one of those upscale grocers that prided themselves on a small selection and higher prices. He never frequented the expensive store, but Nori had when she'd been staying with him. When he entered, a tiny bell tied to the door tinkled and a woman sweeping the floor smiled at him. The air around him held the crisp scent of fresh vegetables and the rich, pungent smell of artisan cheeses.

He strode through the cramped aisles, the hard soles of his dress shoes clacking against the wooden floor, knowing what he was looking for but not sure where he would find it. He searched through the tiny store, finally locating his quarry near the back wall of the store. Picking up one other item, he quickly made his way back to the front of the store where a pretty, large, bespectacled woman with dishwater blond pigtails rang up his purchases. He looked at his watch impatiently as she did, he had just under an hour before the car would come for him.

At his house he took a shower and shaved, trying to inject more life into his tired face. Bran took out new clothes, carefully selecting a hunter green t shirt that Nori once said brought out the color of his eyes, to go underneath a light brown sweater with a zipper front and a pair of jeans. From the back of his closet, he took out a wrapped package, handling it carefully. He'd wrapped it a week before, and put it away, unsure of when he'd be giving it to Nori. Now he took it downstairs and into the kitchen, setting it back on the counter where it couldn't be knocked onto the floor as easily.

Glancing quickly at his watch, he saw that he had ten minutes left and he moved around his house, nervously tidying up as much as he could just to keep himself busy. Bran was neither a sloppy man nor was his house in need of much cleaning and he found himself just walking around, pacing his own living room until his doorbell sounded. The car was here and now it was up to Nori, he took a deep, steadying breath as he got into the waiting black car. He hoped she would come with him.

She wasn't outside waiting when his car pulled up, back into the circular drive in front of the Viscount's Keep. Bran got out of the car, opening the door anxiously and moving in a stiff, disjointed way that betrayed his nervousness. When he went to close the car door, he saw her as she came out of the building. Inside of him, he could feel his gut twisting and writhing as she walked slowly toward him and he stopped himself from shutting the car door, letting the it hang open as he stood next to it. Nori walked up and came to a stop in front of him, purposely just out of reach.

"You came." He said, running his hand through his hair self-consciously. He willed himself to stand still, to seem normal and not fidget or seem as fragile as he felt.

"How could I resist such an invitation?" She asked him with a small giggle that was much higher in pitch than her normal husky chuckles. Though her face was calm, she played with her hair and pushed it out of the way unnecessarily. It seemed that he wasn't the only nervous one tonight, but his invitation in the office had unnerved her as much as it had enticed her. Bran extended his palm generously towards the car door and she walked in front of him without touching him, getting into the waiting vehicle.

"What's this about?" She asked in a soft, slightly apprehensive voice when they were underway, back to the house he'd just left.

"A surprise." Bran said in a voice more confident than he felt. He crept his hand towards where hers rested at her side across the distance in the backseat. She let him take it and he gave her his smirking, lopsided smile in the dark car.

They rode the rest of the short distance in silence, holding hands in the backseat of the car. He took delight in the simple feeling of her hand resting in his, making it feel as if no time had passed and there was nothing wrong between them. When they reached his house, the pair stood outside while Bran fumbled with his keys. Nori stood next to him, shivering without a coat on in the darkness now that the sun had gone down. One of his arms snaked around her, and when it did he was able to open his door without any further trouble, as if touching her had righted his world.

When they stepped into the house, Nori brought Bran to her, her hand bunching his sweater into her fist and kissed him, a short, sweet kiss. It was a simple, warm kiss that didn't lack passion though it wasn't drawn out. When she released him, he looked at her questioningly, but was unable to mask the glee dancing around his features, making him look more like the man she remembered.

"I just wanted to do that once on my terms. You had plenty in your office, all I wanted was one kiss."

"Is it parity you desire, my dear?" He asked.

"Among other things." She said with a wicked smile that sent a delicious chill through him. Bran felt his control slipping, the situation was going to be harder to dictate than he'd expected.

Nori looked around his house everything was the same inside, it was comfortable and familiar. Walking back into his house felt like coming home after an extended absence. She hadn't realized how many of her things were still there, as if they'd been waiting for her to come back.

"There that shit is!" She exclaimed, seeing her games next to Bran's TV and glad for a distraction.

"I can hardly believe that you forgot they were here."

"I did. I thought the games were under my bed and I was too lazy to investigate." She replied and he laughed. Under her bed was the only possible place in her apartment to lose something, besides her closet; she just didn't have enough stuff to make it permanently lost.

"Why didn't you return them?" She asked, suddenly suspicious. Bran felt color flush his cheeks as he stammered to explain.

"I liked having them here. Jason played them when he visited." She smiled at him, softening at the mention of his son. "I have a surprise for you." He reminded her, taking her hand and leading her to the kitchen. Sitting on the island where she'd spent so much time, eating, watching Bran cook and having tea, was a cake. A Name Day cake, judging by the candles that were sticking out of it.

"I wasn't my best on your last Name Day, so I wanted to make it up to you." He told her.

"This is you begging?"

"No, this is me making up for a mistake. Begging comes later." Bran lit the candles on the cake, pulling a lighter out of his pocket. Nori didn't count, but was fairly certain he had stuck twenty-nine candles in the cake for her. The whole confection looked like it was on fire, but she gave an almighty blow and extinguished all the candles at once. For just a moment before she blew out the candles, Bran looked into her face and saw the unexpected happiness there, and felt his anxiety ebb away.

Bran cut the chocolate cake, then opened the freezer and took out vanilla ice cream and put a small serving on Nori's plate next to the cake.

"Oooh, you even got ice cream!" Nori said in an excited, infectious voice. If he hadn't even gotten to the begging yet, she was really looking forward to it.

"I've got you a present too."

"Bran, you didn't have to do that." Nori's voice was so soft, he could barely hear her. "You gave me excellent presents on my Name Day." She was overcome by his gestures, nearly ready to take him back. He just needed to explain things to her, she couldn't go back if he was just going to break down again in a few months.

"This is different, it's got a story." He said, handing her the slender package that he'd plucked from the depths of his closet earlier.

Nori opened the gift carefully, almost reverentially taking the paper from around the rectangular form. She had an inkling of what it was and was not disappointed when she peeled back the wrapping to reveal a framed photo. What she hadn't been expecting was for the photo to be of her, more specifically of her and her father when she was around ten years old and he had been in his first term in the Assembly.

The photo was sepia tone, different than how she'd remembered it in black and white, when it had been published in a magazine. Nori's ten year old self smiled into the camera, Malcolm Hawke's head next to hers as he bent to her height. Her hair was long, and she had the gawky, funny look she'd had until adolescence, that her mother affectionately called cute no matter what Nori truly thought. Her resemblance to her father was clear with their faces next to each other. This picture is what had made her really believe that they could be twins, that she was his gemina. She'd never been able to find her father's copy of it when she'd inherited his library of books and law papers. It had been years since she'd seen this picture, she hadn't even been able to find the magazine it had run in, much less a print of it.

" _Andraste's ass_. Where did you get this?" Nori breathed as she stared at the picture, unable to look at the image enough. Tears welled behind her eyes and she shut them rapidly in an attempt to stop them.

"That's where the story comes in. Do you want to hear it?" He asked, bringing a waiting forkful of cake to his lips after he'd spoken.

"Pour me a glass of wine." She directed and he went into the dining room, selecting a bottle that would do well with the chocolate cake, but unfortunately would be ruined by the heavy milk taste of the ice cream. He'd eat his ice cream after he finished his glass of wine he decided, as he trooped back to the kitchen to open it. Bran poured two glasses and settled onto the other bar stool at the island to tell his story.

"I remembered that you'd looked for this picture and so I tracked down the magazine even though you couldn't remember the name." Bran began.

He had searched the archives of multiple photography websites that indexed magazine photos, but in the end it was a helpful librarian that had located the copy he'd needed and he'd viewed the magazine on microfiche. After finding the credit for the photographer, one Howard Mecklinberg who had been employed as a photographer by the Assembly many years ago, he'd set about finding the man. Bran had Ruvena track down Mecklinberg only to find out that Howard had passed away a couple of years before, but his widow, Lenora was still living in Kirkwall.

They arranged for him to visit her on a Saturday afternoon after he'd called her, asking about her husband and his photography. The Mecklinberg's house was a modest, one family house situated on a dusty stretch of land on the road leading out of Kirkwall. When Bran eased his car up to her house, she was waiting, staring out the window at him.

Lenora Mecklinberg was a round woman, with a smiling face and hair that was still more brown than grey despite her age. She was clad in a shapeless dress that looked more like a housecoat than an actual dress, and she wore slippers. Lenora greeted him like an old friend and first investigated his background before talking about her husband. The house around him was spotlessly clean but aged, the linoleum floors yellowing with age and the wooden paneling on the walls from another era.

On the walls hung portraits, taken in the same style as the picture he'd been tracking down, obviously done by Howard Mecklinberg. The only ones that were different were the ones with Mecklinberg in the frame, and he looked at the man in the lone wedding picture that was up, the thin face and glasses, hair styled in a short, serviceable cut. Lenora of the pictures looked very similar to her current state, just thinner and with less lines on her face. He sat with her in her kitchen, the overhead light shining down on him as he sat against the hard plastic chair across from Lenora.

"So what do you do Branford?" She asked, calling him by his seldom used full name and smiling as she poured him a glass of apple juice.

"You may call me Bran, my lady. I work as the Chief of Staff for Viscount Dumar." He answered.

"What does that mean?" She scrunched up her face at him and poured him a little more juice before setting the bottle down on the table between the two of them. Lenora continued to walk around her kitchen, puttering around and searching for something as he answered again.

"That's a good question." He murmured, and she laughed a loud, raucous laugh before getting out a dusty bottle and pouring vodka into Bran's apple juice. Over the phone she'd asked him to have a drink with her, but vodka and apple juice wasn't what he'd had in mind. "I suppose my job is to be the last stop for everyone before they get to the Viscount and I oversee his support staff."

"You're from here?"

"Yes, my lady. But my parents live in Orlais now."

"That's too bad." She commented and he sniggered, taking a drink of the powerful mix of apple juice and vodka she'd given him.

"And you take pictures, like my Howie did?"

"Not as well as your husband. I do enjoy photography but I never had the skill or chance to make a living at it."

"Normally I don't like it when people try to butter me up, but you're a handsome boy so I'll allow it."

"That works out well for me, my lady." Bran said with a wink, earning a flurry of giggles from the woman.

"Call me Lee. Tell me, why do you want to look through Howie's pictures?"

"There is a particular picture I'd like to find, a picture of Malcolm Hawke."

"Oh, I liked him." Lenora said, settling down in the chair and pouring herself a glass of just vodka. "It's a shame that he's gone. That Meredith Stannard is a nutball. I saw her on the television set yelling about nothing."

"She does that a lot, but she won't be in the Assembly for much longer." Bran said to her.

"Who will be?" Lee asked, suddenly interested.

"That's for the voters to decide." Bran said diplomatically.

"Bullshit." Lenora spat at him, and he was surprised by the vehemence behind the word.

"Thrask. It will be Ser Thrask. The Viscount will endorse him." Bran confessed, unsure as to why he was telling her. She smiled kindly at him when he finished, a small wall between them shattered by his honesty.

"Now tell me why you're here Bran."

"I'm in love with Malcolm Hawke's eldest daughter and I wanted to get the picture for her. She's been looking for it for years, apparently it wasn't in with her father's things and it's special to her."

"Does she know you're in love with her?"

"She has a few reasons to doubt that I still am."

"So you screwed up, and this is your way of making things right." Lenora stated, assessing the situation.

"I screwed up." He conceded.

"What did you do?"

"Uh..." Bran didn't know how to start. He looked up at Lee's face, the pale blue eyes expectant as she met his gaze. "Saemus Dumar, the Viscount's son grew up with my son Jason. They were close, we all were close, like a family of sorts. He could have been my son. When we lost Saemus a few months back, I didn't do so well with it and I pushed her away. I treated her poorly." The explanation felt paltry, but it was correct in facts if lacking for detail.

Lenora's gaze softened as she stared at Bran and he could look nowhere but at his hands clasped in his lap. The silence stretched between them and he finally looked back up, taking a drink of his alcoholic concoction just for something to do.

"If she loved you before, then she still loves you. She knows you were hurting." Lee said softly. She was looking at him, her elbow on the table and her hand propping up her chin.

"I hope so Lee."

"You've got a son." It was a question even if she stated it. Bran answered gladly, hoping to talk about Jason more.

"He's in college. I was married once before. When I was nineteen."

"And now you're in love with Malcolm Hawke's daughter."

"For some time now."

"Aren't you too old for her?"

"No." Bran said flatly.

"My own mother thought my Howie was too old for me, he was fifteen years my senior, but we were happy for forty-six years together." She said wistfully with a slight frown on her face, looking over her shoulder at something Bran couldn't see. Turning back to face him, Lenora drank down the rest of her vodka in one, refilling the glass with apple juice this time and taking a sip.

"She's twenty-nine. I'm forty-two."

"Not too old then." Lenora said, her eyes twinkling at Bran.

"I don't think so."

"Are you going to get married and have another baby?" Lenora queried curiously.

"Maker, I hope so." Bran said swiftly and surprised himself with the answer. Lenora laughed.

"It looks like you just learned something about yourself. I hope so too Bran, I hope so too." She cackled again, still looking at his astonished face. "I'll tell you what, you're a nice boy so I'll give you the picture and all the rest of Howie's equipment. He'd want another photographer to have them and I've no use for them, I can't take a picture to save my life. My grandson got me a digital camera that you can see the pictures on right away and that's good enough for me."

"Thank you, Lee." Bran said. Her generosity was as unexpected as his own admission about wanting more children.

"Do something for me. Let me know if she says yes." Lenora said, getting up from her chair. She motioned for Bran to follow her out of the kitchen.

"I'll send you a dozen roses when she takes me back." He offered walking slowly behind her as they left the room. The older woman laughed again, turning slightly towards Bran as she spoke.

"I like you; you're a romantic at heart. No wonder you tracked down an old lady like me on a long shot to find a photo. Come on, Howie's darkroom is this way." She said, opening another door that led into a basement.

Bran left Lenora with a kiss on her wrinkled cheek after carefully packing up Howard Mecklinberg's equipment, negatives, processed prints and camera bodies. The man had a lifetime of work that had just been sitting in his darkroom, waiting for him to come back. He offered to dispose of the chemicals that couldn't be salvaged, instead of leaving them there, promising to come back another time. He had visited her again last weekend, taking two hours to talk with her and help her clean out the last of her late husband's equipment. Lenora had been sad to see it go, but glad that Bran wanted to put it to use. She'd offered it to her children and grandchildren, her heart breaking when none of them even wanted to take any of it.

It had taken Bran sometime to search through the vast treasure of negatives, but he'd located the picture amongst what he had recovered from the darkroom. Bran painstakingly developed the photo and a few others in his own darkroom in the basement of his brownstone, similar to one at Lenora's house. When he'd properly developed the picture, Bran took it to be framed professionally.

"I wanted to give it to you, no matter if you took me back or not. I know it meant a lot to you." Bran said to her, finishing up his story. He looked over at Nori and was shocked to see her eyes shining bright with tears.


	26. Savor the Perfection

Nori sat across from Bran in his kitchen after listening to his story, about how hard he'd worked to track down Lenora's husband and find the picture. This wasn't the man who'd left her, the man that hadn't been able to do his own laundry. This was Bran, sitting in front of her, trying to put himself back together. The mountain of doubt that she'd piled between them as a protective barrier began to degrade as she looked at the picture. She'd only mentioned it in passing before, and here it was.

"I don't even know what to say besides thank you so much. I'm truly stunned." Nori said to him. She was holding the framed photo still, looking at it and smiling. A tear did escape, just one and it slid down her face as she looked at the photo. Before Bran could wipe it away, her hand swiped at it as if it annoyed her more than anything else.

"It was my pleasure Nori. I wanted to do something for you, something to make up for before. Things were bad after Saemus died, and you were right, I needed to talk to someone. Once I started going to my doctor and pulled myself back together, all I could think of was you." He stood up, starting to put the remains of the food away.

"You never indicated it at work. I wouldn't have known if I hadn't talked to Jason a few weeks ago."

"I know. It was difficult to figure out a way to talk to you, but tonight when you came into my office, I couldn't let you leave without trying. At least tonight I knew that you wanted me too."

"That was enough?"

"It was enough to make me brave, enough for you to want to be here." He answered. There was no denying that, she'd certainly wanted to take his offer tonight after all the kisses in his office.

"I thought I was doing the right thing, that things wouldn't work between us. It scared me to me to see Saemus dead, and it made me realize that one day I would leave you alone. It made me feel like an old man and I wanted to pretend it was your fault. I was wrong." He walked over and took her hand in his, running his thumb across her knuckles. He was looking straight into her eyes, and she'd forgotten how stunning his light brown eyes were up close. There was regret there, but sincerity, also a little fear. He was still afraid she'd reject him.

"Nothing has been more awful than not being with you. I was cheated on, lied to and divorced and it didn't hurt like this." His voice was deep and throaty as he whispered to her, making desire dance across her skin. "Nori, please. I love you. Can we try again?"

She slid off her stool and embraced him, reveling in having his familiar, comforting heat touching her again. She looked up at him, directly into his eyes. He stared back, his gaze questioning but unflinching with his arms still locked around her.

"I'm sorry, too. It's hard for me not to be the stoic one, and I know that bothered you. It felt selfish of me to be in pain when you were so obviously hurting; inappropriate to be sad when you were so achingly miserable." She lowered her eyes, breaking their shared gaze and he lifted her chin back up with a single finger. "By the Maker, I missed you so much." Nori whispered.

Bran's answering kiss was equal parts triumphant and demanding as their lips met. What started out as a gentle yet persistent demand grew hungry and the kiss deepened as they stood there. He could taste the tangy red wine and the sweet cake on her tongue as they kissed. Beneath his shirt, he felt Nori's hand snake up under the t shirt and caress his chest, her palm roaming over his body underneath his clothes. He bit back a groan as he slid a hand into her silken hair, pushing her closer to his mouth.

"I dreamed of you." He rasped into the sensitive skin below her earlobe. "All the time. I missed. Every. Little. Thing." He punctuated every word with a nip on her ear and neck, kissing her as he had earlier in his office, breathing heavily into her hair.

"What did you dream?" Nori breathed. Her hips nudged his and she pressed him up against the refrigerator, relishing the look of shock in his eyes as his back hit the cool surface of the appliance.

"About the way your sweet mouth felt on my cock those nights when you'd wake me up." He growled into her ear. "About all the things I wanted to do but never got the chance, bind you with silks, take my time, all night, and see just how many times I could make you come before you begged for me." His hands gave her ass a savage squeeze as he spoke, punctuating his words as she gave a breathless sigh against him.

She was going to have sex with him right there, right in the kitchen if they didn't stop now, but Nori couldn't pull herself away from Bran. In her dreams his kisses had never been this sweet, his apologies weren't this sincere and heartfelt, making up never quite this hot, and she wanted to savor the perfection of this moment. Her hands were groping him, touching and stroking his heated skin as they continued their breathless kiss. A frenzy of lust drove her actions, and she pinched his hard nipple between two fingers as her tongue swept down his neck. Her body was weeping with want, the juncture between her thighs filled with the wet heat of her arousal.

"Please, upstairs." Nori panted when they finally broke apart. She withdrew her hands from under his clothes, earning a pained moan from him as she did.

"I've missed you so much." Bran growled, following her upstairs to his bedroom. Once in the room, he pulled her into another kiss, this one rougher and fierce, his hot tongue twisting with hers. His want was almost unbearable, everything she did made his slick hardness arch painfully against his jeans but he didn't want to rush this, this first time after they'd been apart for so long.

Nori's dress buttoned all the way down the front and Bran started unbuttoning each button after taking off her boots. He took his time, just working on undressing her, feeling the softness of her skin beneath his hands, the sight of her before him, something he never thought he'd be treated to again. He loved this woman like he'd never loved anyone else in his life.

"Bran, while we were apart..." Nori wanted to tell him about Isabela and Fenris before they did this, even if it meant they stopped.

"There was someone else?" He asked, his impatient hands still undressing her.

"Yes, two people. But it was at the same time." Nori admitted. He stopped undressing her finally and looked at her.

"If you were anyone else I'd tell you that's what I want for my next Name Day. But you - I don't like the thought of sharing."

"Was there anyone else after me?" Nori asked, shutting her eyes.

"No." Bran sucked in a breath. "I never could. The depression." He explained.

"Oh. I'm sorry Bran." Nori sat up and wound her nearly naked limbs through his clothed ones. "I'm here now." She kissed him, determined to make up for the lost time between them.

Their kisses heated up again and he broke away from her, eagerly discarding his sweater and pulling off his shirt as she shucked off her mostly unbuttoned dress. When he got to her garters, he deftly unhooked all of them, remembering the many times he'd done it after work before. Just like the first time he'd made love to her, he loved the way she looked in the lace topped stockings and sat back to gaze at her.

"Do you want me to keep them on?" Nori asked.

"No, I want you naked. Just completely naked and in my bed."

His answer was fervid and honest, filled with desire and regret. He rolled her stockings down, slowly, watching the fabric go from sheer to colored in his hands as he gathered more of it, taking it off her legs. Bran was shirtless but still wearing his jeans and he stood up to disrobe, looking at her lying naked in his bed. He'd missed this. Not just the sex, but the intimacy, having someone he loved in his bed, being loved. Nori smiled at him luxuriating in having his attention, something she'd missed sorely.

He looked at her body, assessing her form in his bed. The few times he'd seen her, in meetings or passing by at the office she'd looked different but he hadn't been able to place what the change was, besides her recent hair coloring. With her clothes off the change was evident, there was more muscle where there had once been a soft mound of flesh. In the back of his mind he recalled Aveline inviting her to train in martial arts with her friends. He traced the new definition in her arm with his fingertip. Perhaps she'd finally taken her friend up on the offer.

Nori descended upon him, wet, hot kisses landed all over his naked form until she finally reached his mouth, kissing it with a passion she'd been saving only for his lips. She knew he was trying to go slowly, but she was having none of that, her need was too great.

Moving her hands to his groin, she took his length in her fist and stroked him, her kisses smothering his fevered grunts. When she touched her lips to the head of his cock, lapping at it gently she took in some of his bitter fluid, recalling his unique taste before taking more of him into her mouth. She hummed, moving her slightly vibrating lips around the tip of him, feeling the rest of Bran's body go rigid with pleasure as she did. Sliding down him, she twisted and sucked, one hand wrapped around the base of him and the other alternating between teasing the head of his cock and his balls. She toyed with him, enjoying the feeling of him growing as hard as steel in her under her pulsing tongue.

" _Maker_ , woman." Bran gasped, one hand gripping the side of the bed in desperation. "Not yet." He warned and she reluctantly backed away from his cock, but not before twirling her tongue up his length one last time. Bran cursed softly as she did, powerless and unwilling to stop her if she wanted to go on.

She heeded his warning, crawling back towards him. He didn't wait for her to slowly slither next to him, instead grabbing her around her waist and pulling her to where he wanted her. Bran was above her now as she lay on her back, and he was leaving fierce, biting kisses in a trail from under her chin to her breasts. She felt his teeth scrape against her skin and moaned, jerking slightly when he came in contact with her hard nipples. Sucking savagely on one hard peak, Bran's fingers fondled the other, rolling the nipple between his fingers, drawing ragged moans from her.

Nori lay back on the bed with her eyes closed, his lips now trailing down her belly. She felt him slam his fingers inside of her, gasping at the sudden full sensation his two fingers brought. Bran placed a kiss on the hot skin underneath her navel before moving downward, using his other hand to stroke her clit. In a practiced motion, she brought her own hand down to part herself, letting him get to her throbbing nub easier. Suckling and lapping, his eager mouth and fingers were bringing her to the brink of madness. She felt her release building, the slight tremors rippling across her body as Bran sped up, increasing his pressure as he tongue circled her clit. The friction of his fingers pumping into her made her buck against their pressure, sending her spiraling towards her end.

The howl that marked her release erupted from deep within her. Her body shook with the force of the accompanying convulsions, wetness covering Bran as she bumped against him. Nori lay panting, shaking slightly as she the dying waves of her orgasm swept through her, electrifying her from the inside out. She wanted to lay there in a shivering heap, just she felt Bran kissing her stomach again, his tongue quickly darting over her nipples as he passed them.

His hands pushed her shoulders back against the mattress and Bran slid himself into her. The first feeling was one of comforting rightness, the same feeling she'd always had with him. There was no one like him, no one quite so perfect for her. Nori sighed contentedly underneath him, matching the relieved exhalation Bran gave as he hilted himself inside of her. Grasping at his shoulders, she lifted herself upwards a bit to kiss Bran, taking in her own musky, sweet taste on his lips as his hips worked, setting a smooth rhythm between the two of them. It wasn't to last, both of them knew, especially when Nori clenched around him and she saw his blissful face contort in response.

"Faster." Nori commanded in a low voice, her fingers digging into the soft flesh right above his ass, urging him into her.

Wordlessly he complied, she felt him speed up his thrusts, no longer dragging himself nearly out of her before pushing back in, but shallower and faster. She rolled her hips against his, moving up to meet him, continuing her to squeeze her walls around him as she did. He was fevered, moaning at her every touch as he built up to his orgasm. Sweat stuck their stomachs together but Nori didn't try to slow, panting as she kept up with him. One of her hands raked through his thick auburn hair, the other running up his side, grazing his skin with her fingernails. Each stroke of his hips became more powerful, almost barbaric as he rocked into her. His body drew up and for a moment she could see it in his face, hear it in the rawness of his strained moans, right before his swollen cock gave an almighty twitch and Bran shuddered with his whole body. She could feel the heat within her, filling her with his seed as he groaned her name, long and drawn out as he came.

"You look so pretty sleeping next to me." Bran said to her in a soft voice. Across her warm skin, his finger drew lazy shapes as she awoke from a sleep she hadn't known she'd drifted into. Her last memory was of him kissing her as he lay next to her, both of them trying to let their bodies cool off.

"I swear that's in a song."

"It might be, but that doesn't make it less true." He said. Nori laughed softly, looking into his face. She could hardly believe she was here again, that they'd gotten it together finally. Bran was looking down at her, his head resting on the pillow slightly above her. He looked peaceful, his eyes had lost their deadened look, and sorrow no longer seemed to cover him. Though still tired, it was a happy tired now at least.

"Do you want to live with me?" Bran asked her out of the blue.

"Yes. Are you sure? We just got back together. But I do want to." Nori babbled. The question flustered her, but then gave her pause as something clicked in her head. "We can't just live together, can we?" Politicians didn't have live-in girlfriends.

"No." Bran said, then got up out of the bed. She watched him, laying back against his sheets, missing his warmth as he strode over to his bureau. Opening his sock drawer, he searched for something and then walked back to Nori, setting it down between them.

"You don't want me to get on one knee do you?"

"That doesn't really seem like us, aren't we more like equals than you pleading for my hand?"

"True." He answered and Nori opened the box. She couldn't help it; she gasped when she saw the ring inside. Bran slid it onto her finger, admiring the artistic piece of jewelry.

"I had help with everything." Bran admitted. "Brennan, Jason and Bethany. Brennan got your ring size for me once she was adequately satisfied that I was actually going to propose." He said, recalling the lecture Brennan had given him when he'd enlisted her help. The words " _don't you dare fuck this up_ " had been uttered threateningly by the petite woman, more than once as she waved a menacing finger in his face.

"Bethany helped me pick it out and well, Jason was mostly moral support when I went to pick it up." He finished. She was surprised to hear her sister's name included in the list, but only for a moment. Of course he would ask Beth and she would have loved knowing before Nori that he was going to ask.

"It's beautiful." It was, a clear blue sapphire solitaire set in gold filigree. "When did you get this?" Nori was curious to know how long he'd been planning for.

"Three weeks ago. I, uh, asked your mother for your hand." He looked sheepishly at her and Nori looked her surprise. Her _mother_ had been holding this in for _three weeks_? That must have been pure torture for her. "Do I get an answer now?" He asked, his voice a little imploring.

"You know what it is."

" _Say it_."

"Yes. I'll marry you, although you didn't actually ask." She teased him, then added in a softer voice, "I didn't think I wanted to get married until I was with you." His crushing hug pushed her backwards onto the pillows and he gave her a soft, lingering kiss.

"Damn you for making me beg."

"I should have made you beg more now that I knew you had an engagement ring and didn't come talk to me for weeks at work." She wrapped her arms around his neck as he continued to kiss her.

They made love again, languidly, Nori laying on her side with one arm hooked around Bran's shoulders as he thrust from behind her. Tomorrow they'd be exhausted at work, but Nori could think of no better reason than this one. Again and again he pushed into her welcoming warmth, their intimate dance slower than it had been earlier, the edginess of need lost. Bran's fingers worked at her and she came around his cock as he continued his unhurried pace, slowly building fervor in his own body. Eventually she felt him stiffen, his hands grasping at her breasts from behind and she moved against him, adding her heat and friction as he came.

This time she remembered falling asleep against his chest, a magnificent sense of well-being overflowing from her. It hardly seemed possible that this morning they hadn't been speaking, her world still disjointed, and here she was sleeping in his arms again.


	27. Engaged

"Dumar is retiring after this year isn't he?" Nori asked Bran the next morning as his car drove through Kirkwall, past the Viscount's Keep and to her apartment. There was no way she could go to work in the same wrinkled clothes she'd left in yesterday, and she wanted to shower, just so she could think before she went in. So much had changed in just a few short hours.

"How do you know that?" Bran asked in an incredulous tone. It hadn't been announced yet since there was still another year left in his official term but Marlowe had decided it right after Saemus was sent to the pyre. He didn't want to go on working, he wanted to make a life.

"It just makes sense, he's getting more distant from the job. Are you going to become Viscount?"

"It has been mentioned. What do you think about it?" Bran wanted to get her opinion, but she was too shrewd for him.

"I think you're going back into private practice because you never wanted to be Viscount. Also, you like money and I'm pretty sure every private firm in Kirkwall would throw buckets of it at you."

"When we hired you it was because Marlowe said you had one of the best minds in Thedas. He was mistaken; I have yet to meet your equal."

"You're all sweetness now that we're sleeping together again." Nori quipped, earning Bran's rich, velvety laugh. "Look I brought it up because I have plans as well. I've decided to get my doctorate."

"At the University here?" He asked and she nodded her affirmative answer. She'd been away from Kirkwall too long before when she went to school.

"I extended my lease figuring I could move back in with my mother when the Viscount left office and I went to school."

"When is your lease up?"

"In a few months, after the new year."

"That's the time Marlowe is going to leave, so that makes sense."

"When were you going to announce to the staff?"

"Soon. Probably in the next two weeks, give people time to make plans. Marlowe wanted to make his own plans first, figure out where to go." Bran stated, looking out the window as he did. He hated to think of the end of Marlowe's term coming so quickly. As stressful as it could be, he loved his job but had no desire to be Viscount himself.

"Who's being seriously vetted for Viscount? Not Meredith?" Nori asked.

"Cullen."

"Cullen, married to my cousin Solona, Cullen?"

"It's so charming how you begin and end a question with the same word. Yes, that Cullen."

"Huh." Nori was quiet, recalling her memories of her cousin. Leandra and Solona's mother Revka hadn't really seen each other in years, Revka moved to Ferelden, raised her children and still lived there as far as Nori knew. She'd last seen that part of the family when they turned out for her father's memorial service, but Solona and her husband Ser Cullen lived in Kirkwall somewhere. They weren't close enough that Nori had ever sought her out, only bumping into her once in a store.

When they pulled up to her apartment building, she waved Bran off to the Keep, telling him she'd catch up with him once she'd showered. There was no reason for him to wait for her, especially since he'd most certainly fall asleep on her couch and be grumpy when she woke him up.

It wasn't so early that he was one of the first to the office and Bran sought out Marlowe as soon as he came in, wanting to share his news. Less than a day ago his friend had been chastising him for not going after Nori, and now he was going to be married to her. It felt surreal to say it, even to himself. Married. Married to Nori. When he went by Elthina wasn't sitting at her desk, probably off getting coffee, and Bran walked into the office.

"Bran, what do you need?" The Viscount asked him, looking up at him from his email. He was surprised to see his friend, he'd been expecting Elthina with his coffee. Bran looked different, triumphant and a little smug, but mostly really happy, like Marlowe hadn't seen him for many months.

"Nori and I are engaged." Bran announced, letting a cocky grin slide into place on his face.

" _Maker's fat ass_ , are you really?"

"I told you not to worry about me yesterday."

"Where is she? I should congratulate her." Marlowe got up from behind his desk, brushing off his suit.

"She's not here yet, she had to go back to her apartment and get changed. What about me, I don't get any congratulations?"

"Why should I congratulate you, you lucky bastard?" Marlowe grinned, but came around the desk to embrace Bran, clapping him on the back. "Congratulations, Bran. I can't imagine what she sees in you, but I'm glad that you got it together."

When she finally made it to work Nori decided to head Sebastian off. As she rethought how angry he'd been the last time she'd started dating Bran, she realized one mistake had been not telling him herself. For whatever reason he thought he deserved it. After dropping in Varric's office, flashing her glittering ring finger at him and saying nothing just to frustrate the man, she went to see Sebastian.

"Sebastian, I wanted to tell you that I can't wait for you any longer. I've accepted Bran's offer of marriage. I'm very sorry that nothing could ever be between us, but I thought you deserved to know from me." Nori said softly to him as she held his hand.

"Thank you Norina. I don't understand your choice, but I will respect your wishes. My only hope was that we'd met sooner so I could treat you as a proper man does."

She smiled at him, ignoring the swipe at Bran. Releasing his hand after one final squeeze, she left his office and went to start her day.

"Let me in there." Sebastian growled at Ruvena after stomping up to Bran's office. She complied, wondering why nearly everyone in this office was insane.

"Are you actually going to marry Nori or are you going to break up with her once you get her hopes up again?" Sebastian raged at Bran who rallied quickly from behind his desk. Sliding off his glasses, he surveyed Sebastian's mutinous face standing before him and felt disgust rise in him. Whatever claim he thought he had to Nori was not reciprocated or appreciated, but somehow he never got it through his mind.

"Get out of my office Sebastian and stay out of my affairs." Bran's quiet voice betrayed the real threat behind his words. It was as if he were predicting nothing but horrific pain for Sebastian if he didn't leave.

"If you hurt her again, by the Maker, you will regret ever laying eyes her."

"You'll have to get in line. In case you haven't noticed, you aren't the only one who loves her."

Sebastian spun on his heel and left the office, still seething. He may not have ever really had a shot with Nori, since he was her direct supervisor but he wouldn't stand by and let Bran mistreat her again. His anger deflated and he cursed himself. It wouldn't do to get emotional at work - he must maintain his princely calm. Whether or not Nori returned his affections was irrelevant now, he just had no desire to see a woman so special mistreated, even by neglect. He hoped Bran would do the right thing, but just in case, he'd watch him.

Nori had meetings almost all day, but when she got a moment she had to tell her mother that she was engaged. Her mother would be conflicted, especially after seeing Nori so hurt by Bran. It was her hope that she would at least pretend to be happy for her.

"Mother, I'm engaged." Nori announced.

"I know dear, Bran came and asked for your hand."

"He told me that last night, but I wanted to call you anyway. How could you not tell me?"

"Well it was a surprise, Norina, I wasn't supposed to tell. He called me a few weeks ago and we had lunch, then he and Bethany went to get an engagement ring and your assistant sized it for him. Your ring is beautiful darling, I can't wait to see it on your hand."

"You saw it? Did everyone see it before I did?"

"YES!" Brennan shouted from outside her office as her mother answered "Well, just the family."

"I'm glad you aren't upset with Bran."

"Why would I be upset? Your relationship is private Nori and he really loves you. If you've forgiven him, then I don't see why I should hold onto any spite."

"So, can I get married at your house?" Nori asked suddenly and it was her mother's turn to be shocked.

"Of course, but it's not nearly big enough is it? You might just need to find someplace that can accommodate more people." Leandra's mind was turning, trying to think of wedding venues.

"Hold that thought Mother, I have another meeting. I just wanted to share my news, but apparently I'm late."

"Just because we knew didn't mean we knew when he'd propose. Anyway I'll tell let you tell Beth and Carver on your own time. Bring Bran by for dinner when you get a chance."

She hung up the phone, her mind still trying to come to grips with the fact that she had an impending wedding. Nori wasn't the huge party type but her mother was. They'd have to reconcile their guest list before anything could be planned. Just the thought of guest lists and planning a wedding made her groan slightly, with the people her mother would invite and Bran's long list of political contacts, this could grow into the fiasco range very quickly.

"I understand that felicitations are in order." The Viscount was standing in the door to her office. She'd never even seen him back here before.

"Your Excellency, thank you so much." Nori said as she stood up behind her desk, rattled by his sudden appearance in her doorway. He looked well today, which was much better than he had been looking, but the cut of his black pinstripe suit flattered him.

"You are a wonderful person Nori, and though your father isn't here, I am sure he is proud of you and your work. Bran is a lucky man. Congratulations again my dear." He came behind her desk and kissed her cheek. "You'll come for dinner again soon?" He asked her and she beamed at him while she nodded. Marlowe gave her a happy grin in response before leaving her office.

Varric came into her office after the Viscount left, giving her ring a long, low whistle when she held out her hand for his inspection.

"It's beautiful, Nori. I didn't think Bran had it in him."

"It was unexpected."

"So did you and your affianced set a date yet?"

"Well, he's got just the sweetest little lace dress but it's the dry cleaners, so we're going to have to wait on that." Nori said, and Varric gave a chuckle. "Varric it just happened last night, I can't even stop looking at my own hand let alone think of about all the actual wedding things yet."

"I understand, I was just wondering if you'd thought about it before. Lots of people have their weddings half-planned by the time they get around to them."

"You've got the wrong Hawke sister. That would be the romantic one, Bethany."

"How is my darling Lady Sunshine? Haven't seen her in forever, she never comes out drinking with us anymore."

"She might just beat me to the altar if I don't get married soon. She and Keran are pretty serious these days. The last time I called her they were off somewhere on a bike ride."

"Ah, young love. Well tell her I said 'Come out with us' when you talk to her again. If you even remember with all your big news." Varric looked down at his watch, the leather band around his wrist worn. "We're late for our meeting. Come on soon-to-be Mrs. Bran."

All Nori could do was smile at that term of endearment. The whirlwind around her engagement, reconciling with Bran, everything was still new to her and she hadn't thought about things like changing her name, but she liked that other people were romantic enough to remind her. It almost made it feel magical, like everyone was happier because of her impending marriage.

After a day of meetings, people stopping her in the hallways to admire her ring and a stream of people flowing into her office, either congratulating her on her engagement or giving her work Nori finally had a chance to see Bran. In the morning they hadn't made any plans for the evening and she was wondered if they he was staying late as had become his custom. If he was, she was going to go home and nap, their late night had caught up to her as her adrenaline wore off.

"Congratulations!" Ruvena squeaked as Nori walked by. Nori went behind her desk and hugged Bran's assistant, thanking her for helping Bran track down Howard Mecklinberg and get the picture of her and her father. Ruvena blushed as Nori went on about how much the photo meant to her, and Ruvena waved away her compliment in an embarrassed way as she smiled at Nori.

"Hey." Nori said, leaning against the wooden door to his office. She was surprised to see him shutting down for the day, he'd been staying later than anyone else recently.

"Why aren't you ready to leave?" He asked in a perplexed voice.

"Did we have plans?"

"I'm driving you to your apartment so you can start moving your clothes and things over."

"Nothing's packed."

"It doesn't need to be completely packed right now, I just don't want you to have to rush back to your apartment like you did this morning."

"Alright, just let me turn off my computer. My mother wants you to come for dinner this week. I think she wants to talk about our wedding."

"Already?"

"Yes, well this is my first wedding."

"Mine too. I got married before but we didn't have a wedding."

"Really?"

"Yes, we were young and we ran away to get married. It seemed romantic at the time." He eased an arm through the sleeve of his overcoat. "Go turn off your computer, I'll meet you in the lobby."

They'd talked about his former wife before, and Bran had told her about his wife's infidelity, his divorce and Jason. Nori never pressed for details but found it interesting that Bran had never had a wedding before. Well, she didn't want a giant wedding, she'd seen too many of the circus-like productions. Something simple, like Aveline had when she wed Donnic, that was what she had in mind. Nori wanted was minimal fuss, a few people and dancing in a blue dress.

A few nights later they sat around Leandra's table once again, with Carver giving his soon to be _brother_ death glares. Bran found it amusing, for it seemed that he and Nori had found some tentative peace in their relationship but Carver was determined to dislike him. He suspected that he would dislike anyone Nori brought home simply because they were with her, but Bran knew he'd earned his eternal wrath when he broke up with Nori.

"So when you were two thinking of having the wedding?" Leandra asked.

"Soon." Nori answered.

"Why? Are you pregnant?" Carver looked angrily from Nori to Bran and back again, red creeping into his face.

"Please endeavor not to be an obnoxious asshole for once. No, I'm not pregnant. Are you the world's biggest dildo?" Nori asked sweetly.

"Norina, please with the language." Her mother said, sitting down in her chair at the other end of the table.

'What's a dildo?" Merrill asked in a confused, loud voice, causing Bran to cover his face with his hands.

"It's a phallus shaped penetrative device used for sexual pleasure Merrill." Nori stated in a didactic, matter-of-fact voice.

"Oh so that's what they're called! Sometimes they just say _rocket_ or _buzz_ on the package so I just give mine boys names." Merrill chirped as Bethany sat her forehead down on the table. Keran was looking around uncomfortably, a dumb-struck look on his face. Leandra hastily got up from her seat, muttering about checking on something in the kitchen as she scurried away.

"Can we please just talk about the wedding?" Bran asked, his weary voice tinged with desperation as he looked around imploringly at the table.

"They're all named Carver." Carver insisted lamely.

"Whatever gets you through the night." Nori murmured, taking a drink of the wine that her mother let Bran pick from their cellar.

"I remember your son Jason." Keran piped up. "Is he going to be your Best Man?"

"Actually, some of them..." Merrill started to respond to Carver but Bran spoke over her in a voice louder than conversational.

"Oh yes. But I don't know much about weddings at all so I don't even know what duties a Best Man normally has, what purpose he will serve in the overall ceremony." Bran answered.

"He throws you a party with strippers so you can enjoy miscellaneous tits the night before you marry me. Also, I think he stands up with you at the altar so you don't get lonely." Nori offered helpfully.

"Your eloquence is equal to your elegance my dear." Bran shot at her, making a face.

" **THEY'RE ALL NAMED CARVER!** " Carver bellowed, silencing the table.

"Maker, I do love dinners with your family." Bran said to Nori.

Bethany let out an errant squeak of laughter, but covered her mouth with her hands. Nori looked at her sister and a flood of uncontrollable giggles came out. A split second later, Keran gave into the laughter he'd been holding in and the three of them broke out into hysterical laughter. Carver pushed his chair away from the table and stalked off.

"Was it something I said?" Merrill asked. She was gazing at the door to the dining room in a worried way, as if just looking at the door would bring Carver back into the room.

"We haven't even eaten yet." Nori commented dryly as she took another swig from her wine goblet.

Somehow they managed to get through dinner, even Carver rejoined them after Merrill went after him and coaxing and soothing his ego enough to bring him back to the table. As they were leaving, Leandra gave Bran a hug and he spoke into her ear, making her laugh as they left the house.

"What did you say to my mother?" Nori asked, her hand in his as they walked towards where his car was parked.

"That next time she can come have dinner at my house."


	28. Stresses

"The Assembly is going to overturn Act 598." Sebastian said, rushing into Bran's office without invitation. It had been talked about for some time, but he had just now received confirmation that they would start voting on it within the next few weeks.

"How do you know?" Bran asked sitting up straight behind his desk.

"I just do." He didn't want to bother telling Bran that his contact in the Assembly was the pretty aide of a representative from Ostwick. They'd had a fling once, and she still did him favors.

"Does Nori know?"

"Not that I know of, but she probably has more Assembly contacts than either of us." Sebastian answered. He didn't want to be the one to tell her if she hadn't heard yet.

"Alright. Shit." Bran ran a distressed hand through his hair, thinking quickly. "Ruvena, send Nori up to my office." He said through the open door.

"Brennan said she just went to get coffee. I told her to send her up here when she get in." Ruvena said, coming into the room and putting a folder on his desk.

"I should get back. Do you want me to tell her?" Sebastian asked, hoping that Bran would say no.

"No, I'll do it. Ruvena, can you get me everything from the Assembly about Act 598?"

"Certainly messere." Ruvena answered and bustled out of the office behind Sebastian.

When Nori returned from getting her coffee, she already knew about the impending overturn of the Act. Her mobile phone had just gotten three calls from people she used to work with and one from someone that had worked for her father. Act 598 was one of her father's champion bills, strengthening the protections of every Free Marches citizen, regardless of what city-state they called home. It had been nicknamed Malcolm's Marches Act. Act 598 was the last thing he'd worked on before he'd resigned due to his deteriorating health.

Before going back to her own desk, she went straight to Bran. When she walked into his office without asking, closing the door behind her, she realized that he was expecting her. Nori stood in front of him with her coffee in one hand, her phone in the other.

"Act 598. How could they?" Her voice cracked slightly and Bran looked at her sadly, wishing he could do something to stop this. With a lame duck Viscount in office, they had lost much of their pull with the Assembly. There was no one to call to stop the impending vote to overturn. When Bran didn't answer, Nori started again.

"Can't we do something?"

"No."

"Can't the Viscount call some of our friends? Isn't Meredith still playing for our team? What about the others, Ewald and the young one, Paxley?"

"Nori, we can't ask them. How could we repay? We're out of office in a few months." Bran's answers were just fueling her frustration.

"Did you even ask the Viscount, or are you just going to let my father's last significant piece of legislation die?"

Bran shook his head, not knowing how to diffuse her. There was always a fine balance with Nori when it came to her father, it was still a live wire for her whether she admitted it or not. He simply hoped that she would be fine after her initial outburst of anger like she normally did when she was upset.

"Bran, help me fix this." She pleaded. When he shook his head once more she turned on her heel, slamming out of his office.

He knew what she was going to do, what she'd spend all afternoon doing. When they got into the car that night, she had a proposal for him, a proposal to reintroduce what was basically the same act in a different name. She wanted to pass it on to Cullen so that it could be started by Viscount Dumar, one of his final acts in office. Bran refused to discuss it in the car.

"Nori, I can't do this. This isn't your call." Bran said as he unlocked the door to his house.

"Yes, you can. Here just look at this, what I put together for you. I called people and Paxley's behind it."

"If I do this, it's going to look like I got the Viscount to do a favor for you because you're my wife."

"We're not married yet."

"I'm sure that everyone will keep that small fact in mind when they read the act. 'It wasn't unfair influence or nepotism because they were just _engaged_.'" He said in a tone that sounded more angry than frustrated.

"Why are you fighting me on this? You know how much it means to me."

"That's why I'm being honest. I cannot help introduce legislation right now, none of us can unless it comes from the office of the next Viscount, which isn't me. At this moment, I wish it were because I would do this in a heartbeat." Bran said truthfully.

He watched Nori's shoulders slump in a rare sign of defeat. It had been a rough week for her at the office, she was losing ground like crazy now that Dumar was known to be leaving office. The Assembly had declared open season on Kirkwall and she was their prime contact and target. Plus the two of them had this wedding hanging over their heads, and it was slowly snowballing out of control. He now knew why Nori had insisted on it being private and small, because the longer they were engaged, the more people thought they had the right to comment or come to the wedding.

That night she didn't sleep as they normally did, her body curled into his but she was far away, almost hanging over the edge. Nori slept fitfully, unable to find enough peace to sustain her for more than a few hours. The next morning when Bran awoke, he wasn't surprised to find himself alone in bed. Nori almost never got up before he did, preferring to stay in bed until the last moment she had to get ready for work. It was the last workday for the week, and he didn't see any signs that she'd gotten dressed yet, so he went in search of her.

She wasn't in the house but he had a pretty good idea of where she'd gone. Bran quickly pulled on clothes and locked the door behind him, walking down behind his townhouse complex to the private stretch of beach that gave them their beautiful view. The water was grey and choppy, foam on the head of the peaks that hit the rocky beach. Nori was there, standing at the edge of the water, letting the tide crash against her ankles and soak her sweatpants. When Bran approached her, he saw at her feet were a mess of green sticks and she was talking to herself.

"Dad, I wish I could change things. I know how much it meant to you. It's been so tough not having you here. There are times when I wonder how much of what I am doing is right and I miss your counsel so much, I miss hearing your insights." She said softly as she threw the head of another flower into the water. Leaning down, she picked up another flower and popped the head off, depositing the stem in the pile of green sticks next to her.

"I'm sorry this is such a shitty Name Day for you. I wish I had better news, more things to say, but all I've got is this. It's not been a horrible year, but they haven't exactly been good since you've been gone." She walked forward into the water and Bran watched the waves take the flower she threw into it, watching the tiny purple head crest out of view on the moving water. He hadn't know it was Malcolm Hawke's Name Day. No wonder she was so mad at him yesterday.

"I knew you'd come." Nori addressed Bran without turning around. He walked over to her and stood next to her. When she held out her hand, he thought she wanted him to hold it, but she dropped the head of a purple flower into his palm, as she asked, "Anything you want to say to my dad?"

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more." Bran offered in a low voice, but then added, "But I love Nori a great deal, and I thank you for her." The purple head of his flower hit the water as the tide rushed out and it was taken away from him almost instantly. He looked over at Nori and she held out her hand to him.

"Let's go." She said. There was one last purple flower in her hand and she hung onto it, making no motion to break the stem off like she had with the others.

"Not throwing that one?"

"The last one is always for me."

"I really am sorry love."

"So am I." Tiny raindrops hit her face as she said it and he took her outstretched hand, leading her back inside before the sky opened up. They stayed home together for the day, Bran working from his laptop upstairs, taking calls. When he brought her tea, he could see the rain pouring down through the dining room window.

"What about Orlais?" Bran asked Nori when she came out of the shower that evening. He was sitting at his computer still, not working anymore but trying to figure out where to go for their honeymoon. They had only been allowed a few days for a trip and he wanted to find somewhere they could go quickly for the short time they were able to get away from the Keep.

Nori made a face at him as she exited the steamy bathroom in his robe, "So we can hitch a ride back with your parents?" She asked. Her features were painted with her obvious dislike of the idea, plump mouth downturned, nose wrinkled.

"Good point." Bran said, closing his laptop.

After much convincing, his parents were coming to their wedding, though they were loathe to travel in the winter. They would have much preferred he wait until spring to get married, in a large, formal ceremony at the Chantry, but neither he or Nori wanted anything resembling that. He watched her walk around the bedroom, taking her pajamas out of the drawer that used to hold his tshirts. The soft light from the lamp brought out the bronze color threading through the messy knot on the top of her head, the warm jasmine smell from her bath filled his nose as he sat in front of his laptop. Ignoring his gaze, Nori applied moisturizer to her face and then to her body before donning her pajamas.

When she laid back against the pillows, he was already in bed, silently sliding in next to her as she sat with her back to him. The set of her shoulders was rigid despite her attempted relaxing bath. The stress was getting to Nori, she was fighting harder than ever at work to keep Kirkwall's interests from being pushed under the rug. The biggest problem they faced now was that once everyone knows someone new will be in office, they had no interest in dealing with the administration currently holding the office.

Apart from Nori and the rest of her team, morale was high in the office, and had the feeling of school being out for break, despite the people searching for new jobs. It was customary for much of the office staff to stay for the next administration but Bran had offered Ruvena a job as his assistant at his new job and she'd decided to go with him. Bran had been relieved when she'd accepted; he'd miss Ruvena a great deal if she ever moved onto something else, and she did an exemplary job.

Things were much more lax at the Viscount's Keep now, it had the air of school ending for the summer. Nori was still busy - the harvest time was the busiest for the Assembly before they went on break for Satinalia. Between Satinalia and the dawn new year, First Day, the work slowed considerably, the whole period used to reorganize. Bran looked over at her, now dressed in her pajamas, nearly ready for bed, still fragile after the unexpected blow she'd been dealt yesterday.

Before he had even decided on the best way to approach her troubles, she spoke as she sat back on the bed, with a book in her hand.

"So what now?" Nori asked him, settling upright against the headboard, her pillows propped up behind the small of her back.

"What do you mean?"

"We'll both be unemployed in a few months." She reminded him.

"Is that bothering you?" Bran was surprised; he'd thought she'd want to talk about her father. Between the two of them, they would have more than enough money after their wedding, and no problems figuring out where to live or moving. Perhaps she just needed to talk, the thought of unemployment causing her to feel adrift.

"We have plans for the future. Your schooling may not start right away, but I can go to work whenever I want." Bran reached out and stroked her hair as she put her book down without opening it. He was taking a job as a special consultant for a law firm in the city, but had no intention of working as hard as he'd worked at the Viscount's Office. It had been good there, but he wanted a life with Nori.

"I need to talk to you about that. What I'm doing before I start school again." She looked nervous and Bran narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Oh?" He asked, saying as little as possible as he tried to keep suspicion out of his voice. This was unexpected. In all the time he'd been with Nori, he could count on one hand the number of times she'd ever appeared nervous.

"Well I didn't want to tell you until I was sure, but I could take an offer I've been given to write a book. I submitted the proposal when I realized the Viscount wouldn't stay in office - around the same time I made plans to go to graduate school. Anyway I wasn't sure about the book, but I needed income and I didn't know we'd be together, let alone married." The laugh that came from her was incredulous, as if she still couldn't believe it, and she looked away from him, over her soft shoulder.

"You want to write a book? About what?"

"Politics, obviously. I can give you an outline if you'd like to see it. But it's not about us or anything like that Bran, stop looking so worried." She gave a soft, sweet laugh this time, looking at him as he rearranged his features. He hadn't realized they'd reflected anything but surprise at her unexpected revelation.

"How much money are they giving you?"

Nori simply raised her eyebrows at him, trying to figure out why that, of all things, would matter to him. Bran had plenty of money, as did her family. She personally had savings as well but nothing quite equal to the bequest her father had left her. She'd been saving that chunk of money to buy a house, but there was no need now, and she didn't know what to do with it.

"I'm not questioning why you'd write a book." Bran clarified, "And I certainly don't want your money. I was just curious." He said, shrugging lightly trying to rein in the questions that were bubbling within him. He pulled himself up to sitting finally and reached out to her, casually pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"It hasn't been auctioned yet, so I don't know the exact figure, but my agent it hopeful that it will reach six figures."

"You're going to make a years worth of your salary by promising to write a book?" Bran blanched, unable to hide his reaction in time.

"I don't know, maybe, but it isn't like this is typical. I'm famous you see. Well, the name Hawke is at any rate. Does it surprise you?" She grinned at him, more relaxed now, her shoulders no longer held tense and hunched.

"A little. _I_ should write a book."

"But now you'll know what I'll be doing for most of the year, writing and researching until my classes start. I want to finish it for publication in the summer so I can go on a book tour then, but who knows what schedule everyone else has in mind." Bran moved closer to her, wrinkling the sheets underneath them as he got within kissing range. She sighed softly as he put his arms around her, slowly massaging her back and sides.

"So you're an author." He drawled, his voice in her ear.

"Several times over." She reminded him dryly.

"That's right. Marlowe went on for days about something you'd written for a book, but I confess I can't recall which one." Bran kissed her neck underneath her ear. "You're my favorite author."

"I can live with that." Nori said as he kissed her, his hands continuing to caress her back.

"How about the mountains? We can rent a cabin with a fireplace, look out at the snow, and I can cook." Bran muttered into her ear, his mind returning to their honeymoon. Besides their visit to Starkhaven, he hadn't traveled with Nori and was anxious to have her to himself.

"That sounds much better than Orlais." Nori's voice was dreamy and soft as she let him slide her down towards the mattress.

Her plans for the weekend, much to Nori's dismay, was mostly dominated by wedding planning. After their visit with her family, Leandra didn't join them at Bran's for dinner, but did something much worse. She asked Nori to come to her gym and try the some class she was in, raving about how it was 'transformative' for both her body and mind. Aveline was already taking Nori to task in their defense classes and Nori wasn't terribly inclined to try and lose weight for the wedding. She'd just wind up putting it back on after a week of laying around with Bran.

"Mother, I don't even belong to your gym." Nori protested, really just not wanting to go to the class.

"You'll be my guest. It will be fine, I'll come by and pick you up. I'd love to see Bran's house anyway." Leandra answered. Her mother was curious about Bran's house and he needed his car. They were going to buy Nori her own car soon, but since she was adverse to driving, she wanted to wait until she absolutely needed it.

Nori waited for her mother to show up, sitting around in her exercise clothes in the living room, playing a video game to pass the time. Bran was going to see his doctor and visit Lenora Mecklinberg. Nori found Bran's continued friendship with Lenora touching.

Before her mother pressed the doorbell, Nori could hear her outside, commenting about the beautiful landscaping near the door. Sighing, she opened the door for Leandra, and led her around the house. Nori showed her mother around, trying not to disturb too much of the mess that had come from her move, although there were still some of her things in her old apartment for the moment. The tour ended when they reached the basement, Nori was reluctant to disturb Bran's darkroom. Heading back upstairs, Leandra complimented Bran's ever-growing artwork collection as they walked back into the living room so they could leave.

The gym was near in the newer part of Hightown, away from the cobbled grey stone, pedestrian only streets where her mother's house sat. They pulled into a private, underground parking garage that required Leandra to insert her membership card into a machine to gain entry. Walking into the elevator, Nori heard classical music playing at a low volume as they sped towards the main floor.

"Welcome back, Mistress Hawke!" A young woman said from behind the desk.

"Good Morning, this is my daughter Norina. She'll be my guest for today." Leandra informed the girl.

"Of course. I'll issue her a week-long pass, so she can come back and try more of our classes at her leisure. Hopefully, I'll be seeing you both again soon!" Came the annoyingly perky reply, complete with a large grin aimed at both Nori and Leandra. Nori took the pass and attempted to smile back, but wound up looking as if she had a toothache.

Now that she was inside the building, she could appreciate the beauty of the giant glass structure. It was less a gym than it seemed like a human display case, and she admired the large, blue tinted glass windows with rows and rows of elliptical machines, stair steppers and treadmills in front of them. Almost every machine, save for some in the middle of the room had a television monitor attached to it, alongside a port for headphones that could be used to listen to the radio. Every few feet were receptacles with disposable machine wipes and there were a few wooden bins housing fresh towels and a depository for soiled ones. The beech hardwood floors extended throughout the gym, giving the whole area a clean, natural look. Her mother led her through a set of glass doors into a classroom, where an instructor stood ready, clipping on a microphone.

"Hello Leandra! Is this the daughter that's getting married?" The woman leading the class strode over to them, extending her hand to Nori. There was something about the blond that reminded her of Aveline and it set Nori at ease.

"Good morning, dear." Her mother replied, leaning in to kiss the cheek of the other woman. "Yes, this is Norina, my eldest."

"It's nice to meet you Norina."

"Please, it's Nori to everyone but Mother." Nori said and the woman tossed her head back and laughed. "I know what you mean. My husband is Sol to everyone but his parents always use his full name, Solivitus. Sometimes when they call, I have to think about who they are asking for! It's been nice to meet you, enjoy the class." She said, striding back towards the front of the room to begin the class.

"Please, never ever tell me why you signed up for the 'Look Good Naked' class. I really don't think I can handle it." Nori whispered in an aside to her mother as the instructor made a few general class announcements over the speakers before starting the music.

"I thought you'd appreciate it. It's not like you're going to be leaving your room on your honeymoon." Her mother shot back at her. Nori had no time to respond, the music started a mid-tempo song as she turned her attention to the woman leading the class in a warm-up. Bending forward as she'd been instructed over the loudspeaker, she hoped Bran wouldn't be home when she got in, so she could take a nap.

The class was overall not too challenging, even though Nori could feel the satisfying burn in her muscles that heralded future soreness. As much as it pained her to admit it, she had a feeling that she might come back with her mother for another class.

"So darling, are you ready to talk about the wedding?" Leandra asked as she did a few more stretches.

"Alright. We went dress shopping already, so what's next?"

"Well tomorrow we're going to get our hair done," and she held up her hand as Nori groaned audibly. "It's just a trial to see what you'd like. After that, just a few more things." Leandra said with a smile. She was enjoying the planning process of Nori's wedding, sussing the details and minutia out of her daughter with a few questions and shopping trips. It boggled her mind that Nori could look over laws and articles all day with the utmost care, but had no patience when it came to selecting to musicians for her own wedding.

Later that afternoon when Bran got back home, Nori was napping in bed, and she looked like she'd fallen into the bed right after her shower. Appreciative eyes raked over her figure, nude under the nightshirt she'd thrown on before she'd fallen asleep atop the blankets. The shirt had crawled up her thighs, nearly exposing her bottom. Bran put a blanket over her, absently admiring her as he stroked her hair before he left. He knew better than to wake her, especially when she was sleeping hard enough to issue the delicate, sniffling snores that he'd heard coming from her.

"Hey" Nori said to Bran. She was sitting in the rarely used third bedroom of his house, which now housed the assorted books and boxes they'd hauled over from her apartment. There were vague plans to make the room a proper study, but right now it held miscellaneous detritus belonging to both her and Bran. He'd been in his darkroom when she'd awoke and she never bothered him while he was in there, preferring to wait until he emerged on his own.

"Hey yourself. How was the class?"

"Not bad actually, though nothing like being chased by a golf cart." Part of Aveline's job was to be able to run and sometimes their instructor tested them by yelling instructions as he drove behind them in a golf cart. "How was Lenora?"

"She's fine. I think I'll invite her to the wedding."

"That's the least you can do, since she's partially responsible for us getting back together."

"That's what I thought too. Do I get you to myself tomorrow or does your mother have more plans?" He asked, trying to remember if Nori mentioned going out again.

"I have this thing with my mother and Beth in the morning. We're all going to get our hair done to see what we might like for the wedding." Nori's tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice, but failed.

"Whenever you say things like that, I start to wonder if we should have just eloped."

"It's fine, I just start to wonder when this is going to get fun. Maybe it's me, I don't know. I see other people loving this endless planning and being the center of attention, but I just want to tell you that I'll love you forever and have a dance. Is that wrong?"

"Sounds right to me." Bran said, looking down at her sitting amongst a mess of books on the floor.

"I'm attempting to reorganize since everything is a mess anyway." She explained. She needed a project, something that she felt like she could actually do, since her work and wedding caused her nothing but frustration.

"I'll probably be more of a hindrance than a help." He said, realizing that what she needed was to be alone, and she nodded. Bran backed out of the room, his mind on what to make for dinner. He hoped that the next few months would pass quickly, the pain that still lingered in the depth's of Nori's eyes from the stresses of the week was breaking his heart.


	29. Gifts

"I just called Bran to come and get me, so you don't have to worry about me staying for lunch, Mother." Nori said to Leandra, hoping not to be there for much longer. Family togetherness had never been a forte of Nori's and this weekend she'd spent more time with her family than she had since she'd moved back to Kirkwall. It was overwhelming.

When Bran arrived, he could feel the agitation rolling off Nori in waves. She appeared to be in some kind of whispered argument with Bethany after Leandra opened the door for him. Both of them looked red in the face and Nori turned away from her sister quickly when Bran walked into the room.

He'd greeted Leandra, complimenting her on the ornate knot her hair had been twisted into, earning a fluttery smile from his mother-in-law to be. As he walked into the room he looked first at Bethany, easily recognizable because her short hair hadn't changed all that much, it was wavy and shiny, framing the face that looked more like the Amell side of the family. It took Bran a moment to fully realize that it was Nori next to her, even though he knew it was her.

She had a head full of curls, the stylist had washed her hair and filled her head with rollers before placing her under the dryer. When the woman had finished unrolling, separating and styling the curls, Nori's long hair had become carefully crafted ringlets, held away from her face with a white elastic headband that crisscrossed around the front of her head. Nori liked the overall style, but thought that her dress might look better with the curls pulled up onto the top of her head.

"All I'm saying is ask again if you're so upset." Bethany hissed through her teeth.

"It's over, Beth." Nori answered, turning away from her sister.

"Bran." Bethany started in a loud voice, not caring about the death glare that Nori was giving her. "Can you explain the whole thing with Act 598 and why nothing could be done?"

"We're not in the business of overruling Assembly legislation." Bran replied, his voice taut.

"Stop, now." Nori pleaded quietly, in a voice tinged with exhaustion.

"But honestly, Kirkwall couldn't do anything? There was nothing that could be done to save Father's law?" Beth continued. Her face was combative and she was already angry, transferring her emotions from Nori to Bran as her elder sister moved away from her.

"No." His reply was simple, unwilling to elaborate for her.

"But Nori said that the new Viscount might be able to stop the overturn if Viscount Dumar started the process now."

"I am begging both of you to shut up." Nori interrupted them, but neither looked at her. Something had subtly changed in the air and she went over to stand next to Bran. When she reached down to take his hand in hers, she realized that they were balled into fists. He was barely maintaining his temper.

"That's not for me to do. If you want to talk to the next Viscount about it, then you are welcome to. Isn't he married to your cousin?" Bran crossed his arms in front of his puffed chest and looked down at Bethany, dripping disdain. This was how he fought at the office, not yelling or angry, but looking down that thin nose in disgust. He didn't intimidate or threaten people, but grew haughtier; he had an uncanny ability to make any opponent feel small. It was a side of him that Nori rarely saw.

"But _you're_ here _now_ and aren't you pretty much already married to my sister? Seems like you could do something if you truly wanted to." Bethany's voice rose as she made the accusation and she held her chin up, defiantly looking him in the eye. Though the two sisters didn't share many features, Bran's first thought was how much she looked like Nori when she made that face. All of the Hawke women must have the ability to make just that face.

Nori backed away from both of them, unnoticed as she opened the door. She walked out of the room and went to sit on the stairs nearby, but could still hear the tense voices from behind the closed door.

"Oh, hello Nori. What are you doing on the steps?" Merrill had come around the corner from the kitchen, carrying two potted plants in her tiny hands. The nail polish she wore was nearly the same color green as the leaves on the plants, but it sparkled even in the dim light of the stairwell.

"Getting away from an argument. What are you doing?"

"I'm taking my plants up to play them some music, do you want to come?"

"Sure." Nori said, getting up off the stairs and walking up towards the room Carver and Merrill shared. "What kind of music do they like?"

"Mostly classical, but sometimes a little reggaeton when I want to change it up. Carver never plays music for his plants, so I make sure to gather them all together when I do it."

"Carver has plants?" Nori asked, thrown by the revelation.

"Oh yes, well, just one. Come on and see." Merrill said, opening the door to the bedroom. Carver's room looked much the same as it always had, but there was less floor space since she'd given him and Merrill the king sized bed from her apartment. The walls were painted in a slate blue color, and the bed was unmade and messy. In the corner, the desk had a computer with books stacked in front of it and a seedling growing in a disposable cup atop the pile of books.

Merrill walked across the room and placed the two plants she'd been carrying down on the windowsill, near a speaker. Then she walked over to the dresser and took a large plant with bushy leaves off the top, setting down on the windowsill with the others.

"Merrill," Nori began in a slow voice, "Is Carver's plant marijuana?"

"It's been saving us _so_ much money. I tried to get him to let me grow it hydroponically, but he said no. It'd be much bigger if he did." She said, more to herself than to Nori. Somehow, it was news to Nori that Carver and Merrill sat around baked at her mother's house.

"Just make sure to hide it if Aveline ever comes around."

"I will, I will! But come over here now, they really love this song." Merrill said as she started up her music.

Downstairs, Bran and Bethany were still locked in their argument and hadn't noticed that Nori wasn't in the room anymore. Carver was sitting in the living room with Leandra, who was appalled that Nori hadn't broken up the argument thus far. Wearily, she got up and went into the room to separate Bran and Bethany.

"Bethany. Bran. Norina. Carver. All of you stop it this instant."

"I didn't do anything." Carver pointed out, yelling from the other room where he sat in front of the television.

"I'm preempting whatever smart remark you're thinking of making." Leandra called back through the door.

"Bethany, stop pestering your sister's husband. He couldn't do anything about that law even if he wanted. I'm surprised they let it stay around this long; it was very controversial when Malcolm introduced it. Bran's too polite to tell you this, but they only passed the damn law because your father was sick. Everyone knew it would be his last." Leandra took a deep breath and looked around the room. Bethany had covered her mouth with her hands, and Bran was looking down at the floor, ashamed about being so easily baited.

"Where did Nori go?" Leandra asked when she didn't see her in the room.

"Don't know. Upstairs maybe." Bran answered tersely.

"Look, both of you. This is just bad timing with the law being overturned, but she was already upset. It's always been hard for her."

"Mother?" Bethany looked her confusion, not knowing what her mother was talking about.

"Your Father." Bran supplied, feeling very remiss for catching on so late. "She misses him."

"But we all do."

"Bethany, **think**. She's getting married. Norina was always close with your dad, and she has trouble talking about it since he's been gone. No one here knows more about the Assembly than Nori, she knew that they couldn't really stop that act from being overturned, but it hurt her because it was something she shared with Malcolm." Leandra said. "They both were in the Assembly when he wrote that law, they probably wrote it together."

"Oh, Maker. Mother, I forgot. I'm so sorry, Bran." Bethany looked mortified and she went over to Bran, touching his arm lightly.

"It's okay. I shouldn't have gotten angry with you. I apologize." Bran could feel his face blazing with heat as he mumbled his apology. Until Leandra mentioned it, he hadn't remembered the Nori had been in the Assembly at the same time as her father.

"I'm going to go find Nori. Everyone play nice." Leandra ordered, starting up the stairs. She wasn't surprised to find Nori with Merrill, listening to music as Merrill went on about her plants. They were hybrids of something that she'd explained to Leandra before, but it never stuck in her head.

"Nori, come with me, I have something for you. Merrill, will you excuse us?"

"Oh sure, I need to do some work anyway." Merrill said, getting up off the bed and walking over to the desk.

"I'll see you later." Nori said to Merrill, following her mother down the hall to the master bedroom.

When Nori and Bran returned home, she collapsed gratefully on the bed, careful not to let the shopping bag that Leandra had given her hit the floor. Bran noticed the unusual care with which she handled the bag.

"What's that?" He asked finally. Though he had been curious on the way home, he didn't want to talk anymore about her family until he'd put some distance between himself and them.

"It's the only Hawke family heirloom in existence."

"What do you mean?" Bran asked. Nori took a jewelry case out of the bag and opened it for him. Inside was a necklace, presumably white gold, with two square pendants set with princess cut diamonds in the middle of each, a small one and a larger one at the bottom, linked by a row of four round diamonds in graduated sizes. He whistled as she lifted it out of the case. The precious stones twinkled in the light of their bedroom, brilliantly reflecting the illumination from overhead.

"It's a wedding gift. My mother had it reset with diamonds for me. There was paste in here before, but the setting, I'm guessing whoever stole the diamonds didn't know it was platinum."

"It was stolen?"

"The gems were, yeah. My father didn't really know his parents, they were dead for most of his life. When he got older, he dug around for information about them, and it led him to Denerim. This was in the vault of a bank there, left for him with some savings bonds and a photo album. That was it, nothing else left of the Hawkes in Ferelden at all. We think this is a Hawke heirloom because there were two pictures in the album of women wearing the necklace in their wedding photos."

"I read your father's biography, but I didn't realize that you didn't have more information about his side of your family."

"That's it." Nori finished her story as she closed the necklace box. "Not much more to it than that."

"Do you want me to put that in the safe?"

"We have a safe?"

"Yes...I thought I showed you how to get into it. There's things in there, and cash should you ever need it."

"Huh. Sure, put it away for now. But I have other jewelry worth much more." Nori reminded him, rolling back onto the bed again. Bran left the room and when he returned, Nori had disrobed and was laying in bed in her underwear, jeans discarded on the floor next to the bed, halfway to sleep.

"Your hair looks beautiful." Bran said, getting in on his side.

"Thanks. How much cash?"

"In the safe? Around eight thousand sovereigns."

"Oh, that's good. Bran, I'm sorry about the thing with Bethany." She said, cracking one eye open to look up at him. He shook his head at her; she didn't need to apologize. It had been as much his fault as Bethany's, he could have stopped the argument before it started.

"Did you write that law with your father?"

"No. I wrote it and put his name on it. He was too sick. When I finished graduate school I wanted to come work for him, but that's how he told me he was ill. He wouldn't give me a job in his office because he'd just found out about the cancer and thought he might retire then." Nori looked up at Bran with both eyes open and he caressed the side of her face with his hand, looking at the her curly hair spread out on the pillow underneath her. "But he was optimistic, told me that if I proved myself in Tantervale that I could come work for him when he beat the cancer. Things didn't exactly work out."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you were right before, no matter our power, we shouldn't overturn Assembly decisions. That was the kind of thing my father fought against." She stated emphatically. When she went on, it was as if something deflated inside of her, "No one knows I wrote it but you and him. To everyone else it was his final act, but for me, it was the one thing I knew he was proud of."

"Nori, he was always proud of you."

"I hope so." She replied sadly, closing her eyes again. "Wake me for dinner." Nori said sleepily and then she rolled over until her back was facing him. He wrapped an arm around her, inhaling the sweet smell of the products in her hair as he breathed in.

The next morning Bran was called into the Viscount's office without a real explanation. He stood, patiently waiting to be given an order or task of some sort.

"Your Excellency, what do you need?" Bran asked.

"I've called Nori too, but her meeting ran long. Let's wait for her." The Viscount answered, coming from behind his desk to sit on the couch. Bran sat down next to him, wondering why they were waiting for Nori.

"Excited about the wedding yet?"

"Excited is not the way I'd describe it, no."

"Don't the two of you ever have fun? What are you going to do when you both don't work here anymore and you can't talk about politics all the time?"

"We'll be fine. Nori can tend to be reclusive, but we like a lot of the same things. Right now the wedding is just a fight to keep it simple. I think if you got someone from the Chantry to come in here and marry us right now, it would make Nori happier than a big party."

"The two of you are so alike. You were never one for attention or parties either, always liked to be behind the scenes." Marlowe said, giving Bran an appraising look. "So what are you doing once we're out of office? Taking one of those offers that came for you two seconds after we announced, I suppose?"

"I did, and I'm taking Ruvena with me. I'm thinking about postponing my start date though and spending more time with Nori."

"Not a bad idea. Are you and Nori talking about kids, or are you waiting for Jason to give you grandchildren?" Marlowe asked. Bran shuddered as he realized that Jason was now the same age he'd been when his first wife had Jason.

"We've talked about it and I do want more children, but Nori is convinced she's not mother material."

"What? That's absurd."

"I know, but I think she wants some concrete sign that she won't ruin a child before she will be comfortable with the idea of having one." Bran said. Marlowe heaved a sigh before he spoke in a gravelly voice.

"Did you tell her that sign never comes?"

"It's something she should come to terms with on her own." Bran said softly. Marlowe looked at him, surprised he was so serious about the subject. He really did want more children. It was something they had only ever talked about briefly before, Bran's bachelorhood had seemed confirmed as fact for the past decade, so there was little point in speculating about more children. With Nori, Marlowe could see the two of them having a baby in the near future, especially with the pressures of the Viscount's office off them.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Nori said, flying into the room and sitting down next to Bran on the couch in the Viscount's office.

"Come in." Marlowe said, getting up and walking over to the desk to retrieve something. In his hand was a manilla envelope, drawn closed with a little brown string. He handed it to Bran, who took it unthinkingly and didn't open it, instead waiting for his friend to explain.

"Well, open it or ask what it is." Marlowe said in an exasperated voice.

"I assume this is work."

"No. Just open the damn thing."

After years of working in politics, Bran didn't ask for explanations unless he explicitly needed them and his habit came out now as he silently opened the envelope. Sliding the papers out, he saw that they were deeds, specifically the deed to the Dumar family estate. Marlowe was selling, no, _giving_ his house away and Bran read further, only stopping when he saw his own name.

"Are you giving your family estate to me?" Bran's voice betrayed him and he could hear his incredulous tone.

"Not just you, it's for Nori too. Saemus is gone, but I thought that you two could bring some life back to the house." Marlowe said, waving his hand carelessly in an effort to seem nonchalant. It was wasted when Bran saw his eyes glistening with tears.

"It's an early wedding present." The Viscount offered, trying to make his gift of the great house his family called _The Falcon's Rest_ seem as ordinary as a crystal punch bowl.

"Thank you, Marlowe. I'm truly touched." Bran was still looking at the documents in his hand, stunned by the implications. He simply stood there, gawking at his own hand until Nori rushed over and embraced Marlowe. Bran followed suit and they stood there, hugging awkwardly in a way that reminded Bran of all the times they'd hugged after Saemus died. Marlowe clapped him heartily on the back and released the hug, Bran still a little dazed from the implications of the papers he'd been given.

"Anyway, read over the paperwork and sign it. I have a blank copy for you." Marlowe said. "If you have time, you come out there this week and I can show you around." Nori nodded eagerly, almost in awe of the gift he'd given them. She wondered if her mother had known, but decided that she probably hadn't or she wouldn't have given Nori the Hawke necklace this weekend.

Shortly after Bran and Nori received their gift from Viscount Dumar, Bethany got a delivery at work. She was coming in from lunch with Keran, and they were greeted by a vase of white orchids in the middle of her workspace.

"Who are these from?" Bethany wondered, smiling expectantly at Keran. He only shook his head at her as Beth took the card from the flowers; they weren't from him.

 _I'm lucky that you argue with me as if I'm already your brother. Love, Bran_

"Oh now I feel like such an asshole." Bethany breathed, looking at the beautiful display of flowers.

"Bran sent them? How big was this disagreement?" Keran asked after reading the card she'd held out to him. She'd told him about arguing with Bran, but Keran thought that if the man had sent flowers as an apology, it must have been more than she'd told him.

"I told you what happened. Nori was upset so I asked him. We weren't calm about it, either of us and Nori walked out of the room. It's over now, but Maker, I feel awful for even starting it."

"Look, I don't know what you and Carver have against him, but it's like you two take turns being rude to him. If it were me, I would have left long ago." Keran stated.

"It's not like that. Nori gets so upset about things concerning Dad, and she's not at all excited for the wedding." Bethany said, lamely trying to explain.

"She seems fine to me, just not into a lot of fuss. That poor guy puts up with way more than he should. You should have sent him flowers." Keran remarked. "Look, I have to go, but I'll call you later." He leaned over and kissed Bethany's cheek before leaving to go to a class.

Bethany thought about Keran's words, haunted by her actions towards Bran. It wasn't that she wasn't nice to him, but simply that she didn't try to include him in anything. Now she'd gotten into this stupid argument with him, and when she recalled it, she felt embarrassed that her mother had to break them up because he'd been too polite to tell her to shut up and mind her own business.

In the next few weeks she observed her sister and realized that Keran had been right - Nori was visibly put off whenever they discussed the minutia of the wedding, but seemed happy, overjoyed even, with Bran. It wasn't until right near the wedding that Nori finally seemed to be joyous, the exhilaration of her impending nuptials making her uncharacteristically buoyant. Bethany resolved to make more of an effort, especially for Nori. Bran wasn't a bad guy at all, but simply seemed so distant, older and too far removed from her world. She could only think of him as Jason's father, not Nori's husband.

As the weather grew colder, visits to her mother's house had become shorter; Nori needed to keep her distance to keep her sanity. But as their wedding date got nearer, the details all fell into place and giddy anticipation replaced the weary trepidation that had worn on Nori before. Leandra's year-end party had been discreetly changed to a small wedding, complete with musicians and cake. Bran and Nori stood hand in hand near the front door in Leandra's house, nearly ready to leave for their dinner reservation.

"Has the photographer been paid?" Nori asked her mother absently as she buttoned her coat. Every day in her email she got bills, notices and questions from vendors. Most of them were passed along to her mother, but she tried to keep note of who'd asked for what so she could double check.

"It's all set darling, don't worry." Leandra said soothingly.

"Why are you hiring a photographer?" Carver asked from his seat in the other room. He strode through the door, looking offended, almost hurt. "Do you think I'm getting my MFA for nothing?" He said when he made it into the alcove where she stood next to Bran.

Technically, Carver was studying animation, at the small art school that he drove an hour out of Kirkwall to get to each day. He applied his eye for composition to photography as well, though unlike Bran, he took mostly digital photos. Carver and Bran had unexpectedly bonded over their shared love of photography recently, but Carver still was reserved when it came to Bran, as if he couldn't stand to be too friendly with him. Bran offered to teach Carver to develop pictures in his darkroom, but Carver had yet to take him up on the offer.

Nori looked at her brother's face, thunderstruck. She couldn't believe he hadn't realized.

"Carver, you..." Her throat closed up and she made a gasping noise. She tried again. "Dad isn't..."

It was all she could get out before she felt overwhelmed. Nori looked pleadingly at Carver as a concerned look crossed his face. She felt Bran put his hand on the small of her back, nudging her forward, but she shook her head slightly and he dropped his hand. Nori gave in to the tears welling behind her eyes. They slid out from under her closed eyes and she wiped at them with her gloved hands.

"You're supposed to walk her down the aisle Carver." Bran finished what she had been trying to say in a quiet voice.

A pair of arms, much too strong and bulky with muscle to be Bran's arms, wrapped around her. Carver. She knew he'd get it in the end.

"Will you?" She managed to choke out the question in a whisper.

"Course I will. I'm sorry I was so daft, Sister." He hugged her tightly before turning to Bran. "Just tell me what you still need done and what I need to wear."

Bran nodded, acknowledging the olive branch he'd been offered. He heard Carver whisper "He's not so bad," to Nori and she gave a watery chuckle before he released her.

"Goodnight everyone." Nori's voice was husky as she hugged her mother and watched Leandra embrace Bran before getting into the car. When she sat back in the passenger seat, she closed her eyes. Weddings were tiring, which is precisely why she hadn't wanted even more fuss. At least now they were getting close to the date.

"Your mother is exhausting."

"Tell me about it. I suppose I can't convince you to skip the wedding this time around either?" She jested but he gave her a serious look.

"We'd regret it. It may be tiresome, but it means a lot to you, even if you don't admit it. Plus, this isn't bad now that everything is almost finished. All we have to do is get dressed up and prepared to be showered in gifts. You love gifts." He finished, smirking at her.

"Why do you know me so well?" She asked in a half-serious, half-grumbling tone. He laughed and fit his palm around her jaw, then leaning in to place a tender kiss on her cold lips. Snow swirled around outside, lightly blanketing the city as he drove slowly through the streets towards the restaurant in the newer part of Hightown. Bran was right, they were both much happier about the wedding the closer they got to it. There wasn't much time left now.


	30. A Winter Wedding Part 1

On the day before their wedding, snow began to fall again, dusting Kirkwall off and on throughout the day. Jason came the day before, staying with Bran and Nori in the guest room. Bran woke to a bed without Nori, but wasn't surprised. She'd tossed and turned throughout the night, anticipation already building in her as the day of their wedding drew nearer. His bare feet hit the floor and before he went to get started for the day, Bran opened the door to the bedroom just to figure out where Nori was in the house.

Her voice was coming from the living room and he could see her in his mind's eye, sitting on the couch with a video game controller in hand, wrapped in a sweater and her pajamas. He smiled to himself, standing at the top of the carpeted stairs that muffled every step taken on them. She was talking to Jason and Bran wondered what time it was, how long he'd been sleeping if the two of them were both awake before he was.

"Hey Jason, can I ask you something?" Nori voice was nonchalant. "Oh, shit." He heard her breathe and Jason made a sudden, startled noise.

"Sniper on the rafters." He informed her, urgency in his voice. Sound effects came from the television and he could hear the two of them swearing.

"Got him." Nori replied.

"What's your question?" Jason asked, resuming their conversation with an eye on her game. He wasn't playing with her, because he couldn't keep up.

"Would it be strange for you if I had a baby?" Nori's voice didn't betray any indication of what she thought of the subject, it was as if she were just polling on the question.

"Nah. My little brother is six." Jason answered quickly and then asked. "Is that what you and my dad want?"

"I'm not sure yet, but he's talking and I'm listening."

"You'd be a good mother." Jason stated, looking at Nori huddled into the other corner of the couch.

"That's kind of you to say." She smiled at him, and the two fell silent except for the occasional comment on the game.

Bran went back in to his bedroom and closed the door behind him, heading to the bathroom to shower. When he looked in the mirror, a smile had made itself at home on his face without his conscious thought. He had a feeling it would be permanent for the next few days.

That night they had a dinner for their families at a restaurant on the docks. When Bran, Nori and Jason pulled up outside, Bran was still on the phone with his parents, trying to give them directions to the restaurant. He'd offered to go and get them, but they preferred to drive on their own. His father, Graham, had been adamant, stating that he'd lived in Kirkwall for most of his life and didn't need directions. Invariably, they got lost as soon as they turned away from their hotel. Bran was trying to convince them to turn around and take a cab.

They were still standing in the parking lot as Bran argued with his parents about the directions in which the streets of Kirkwall ran, Nori freezing in her dress as she jangled up and down trying to keep warm. She had on a cape, but it was part of the outfit, mainly decorative, she hadn't planned on standing in a freezing parking lot.

"Come on Nori, they'll get here." Bran said, finally hanging up the phone. He threaded his arm through hers, and they went in to meet up with Jason and whomever else was already in the restaurant.

Meeting Bran's parents the night before she married him was not how she'd expected to meet them, but Nori was glad they'd made the trip from their home in Orlais. His mother, Tanwen, was a lot like Bran. He'd told her before that in his youth they'd had the same hair color, and when she looked at his mother now, she could see the startling resemblance that he bore to his mother.

"It's so nice to finally meet you." Nori said, standing to greet her mother in law with a kiss on the cheek. Most of the party was already seated around the table for dinner, and drinks had been poured as they'd waited.

"You too, dear. Please call me Tanwen. I remember your mother very well, and of course your father." She held Nori's eyes as they spoke, and Nori felt like she'd get along with Tanwen even if she weren't marrying Bran.

"Norina, I'm Graham." Bran's father come up next to Tanwen and Nori held out her hand. She was shocked when he didn't shake it, but lifted it to his lips, kissing the top of her hand. They were charming, in the obviously superior way that marked old money and nobility, and it reminded her of the few memories she had of her grandmother Amell.

While Bran looked a great deal like his mother, he acted like his father. The two sat at the table, probably unaware of how similar their actions were throughout the night. Nori watched the two of them when she had a chance, amused at how their mannerisms were like mirror images of each other.

Bran hated parties of almost any sort, and this was no exception. There had been much talking, exclaiming and hugging when they'd first arrived, but he saw now that this, like the wedding itself, was a party for Nori. He didn't begrudge her the attention, in fact, he was glad it was her and not him. She was much more gracious than he, and tonight she sparkled. He sat sullenly a few seats down from her, trying to pass the time as everyone talked around him.

Losing himself in thought to try to blank out the din around him, he let his mind wander. Bran was a man of particular pleasures and distinct desires, being with Nori had allowed him to explore some of the previously dormant fantasies that swirled around in his head. Settling back in his seat, he recalled flashes of some favorite times they'd spent together.

Right after they'd gotten back together, the nights had still been warm as the summer descended into autumn. Overhead the moon shone down, the ethereal light making her smile sweeter. They'd been sitting outside, at the small table hidden by the high walls around his tiny yard, when she'd straddled his lap. When he looked into her face as he speared upwards into her, he could see the stars through her hair and he whispered to her the things he normally said, how much he loved her and had missed her.

"Bran, tell me how much you want to fuck me." She'd half-moaned into his ear. They'd never really explored talking dirty, but he certainly could, she'd given him plenty of fodder for his fantasies. What he said, he couldn't recall exactly, the frenzied, lustful words had been punctuated with needy thrusts, biting kisses and the feeling of her hands raking through his hair as his hips moved against hers.

But afterwards, that night let him feel freer with her, and after that the words flowed unreservedly. In her ears he gave voice to scorching fantasies, describing the way she made him feral with lust, things he'd thought but never dared to say before and she loved it. Nori would squirm against him as he spoke, her impatient hands unable to be still, seeking him out whenever he murmured his debauched thoughts against her skin.

"But everything worked out in the end, didn't it Bran?" The Viscount's voice brought him out of his reverie and Bran looked down the table at his friend. He smiled, unsure of what he'd missed but the conversation didn't miss a beat.

"That reminds me of this time that I was visiting Nori in Val Royeaux." Carver started and Bran felt his apprehension slipping away as he was once again overlooked, free to go back to his own thoughts.

On the gilt-edged plate in front of him, his food cooled and he ate only a small portion of the heavy pasta in rich sauce. Not thinking about Nori was like playing a losing game and he swirled the pasta absently around his plate, recalling the recent times they'd made love at the Viscount's Keep.

Before they'd erred on the side of caution, diligently keeping their personal lives separate from their work. When Marlowe announced his retirement, all the rules broke and they stopped pretending. Now, when his office door closed he made sure to turn the lock and he spent his lunches inside of her, kissing her thighs, pumping into her on his couches, against his walls and on his desk. She loved the people just on the other side of the door, the semi-public nature of it all and he caught her enthusiasm, intrigued by how her eyes sparkled with mischief whenever he locked the door. Blood rushed to his groin and he tried fruitlessly to stop his hardening cock before he gave himself away.

"Are you alright Bran? You look a little pale." Bethany asked from somewhere on his left. He looked over at her, dazed, and felt like a turtle coming out of his shell to find a place he didn't remember. Bethany was looking at him sympathetically, and a tad confused, as if trying to puzzle out why he wasn't having a great time.

"I need air." Bran mumbled, standing up and leaving the table. He couldn't take much more of the party at the moment and left the room. Outside the door he felt cooler, letting himself calm down and he gulped, trying to regain some composure.

Around ten minutes later, Nori got up to go to the ladies room. They had no private bathrooms here, so she walked through the main restaurant, warm and full from the excellent food they'd had. When she exited the bathroom, she noticed Bran sitting alone at the bar, apart from the other patrons. He'd said something about needing air earlier and left the room, but she hadn't realized he was sitting out here.

"Hey handsome." Nori said, sidling up to where he sat perched on a bar stool. He was hunched, leaning forward onto the polished wood bar as if he were trying to deflect any interest in talking to him.

"Nori. Did you come to drag me back in?"

"Not unless you want to be dragged in." Nori sat on the bar stool next to him. "Party too much for you?"

"Too many people, not enough of just me and you." He said, taking a drink from the old fashioned glass in front of him. The clear, fizzy drink had a wedge of lime in it, and she suspected it was just tonic water without any alcohol. Bran was picky, selective when it came to alcohol, he wouldn't drink unless it was the very best liquors. "Do you remember that time on the dining room table?" He asked her, his voice husky as he played back the memory in his mind.

"Mmm." Nori moaned softly, nudging into his side as she shared in the heat of the memory. She cocked her head to one side, looking at his sullen form thoughtfully before she spoke again. "Come with me." Nori said, taking his hand. He left the drink on the bar and let her lead him away.

They wound up in a small, dark room filled with soft things that whispered around Bran's arms as he tried to discern where they were. His eyes adjusted to the dim light and he realized they were in the cloakroom for their private dining room. On the other side of the room was their party and he could hear everyone talking in the next room, asking questions and laughing, occasionally wondering aloud where the two of them had gone. Bran felt Nori's lips on his, she was kissing him and laughing softly.

"Shh." It was all she uttered, all she needed to say. His hand ran up her thigh, and she leaned against him, letting him push the lacy, soft fabric of her underwear aside with his fingers. They couldn't have sex here, not when he could hear everything in the next room, because he was sure they'd hear them too. Bran was titillated by the dark confines of the tiny alcove, thrilled by the thought of all their guests just out of sight. A finger delved into her velvety warmth and he dragged it in and out of her, feeling her shudder with delight against his chest.

Suddenly she moved away from him, away from his hand and he stood still, feeling her fumbling with his pants in the darkness. The cool air hit his lower body as his pants and boxers dropped. Bran stifled his own groan of longing as she dropped to his cock, her hand already wrapped around the base of it. When her mouth closed around the head, his toes curled in his shoes. She went fast, her hand and head bobbing up and down in the dark, making him harder, turning his cock into heated steel.

Beyond the wall, the swirl of voices had become distorted and broken, the only thing that made sense of the touch of her hands, the warmth of her mouth taking him in deeper. Nori touched herself, rubbing at the wetness before bringing her finger forth and slipping into him to the first knuckle. He nearly burst then, and she wasted no time, bringing him to completion in record time. Sucking at him, she absorbed his jerking movements as his release went on, her hands idly stroking his balls as she did. When he calmed, she licked the shaft of his now flaccid cock before standing back up. He kissed her, harsh and needy, as if to say that it hadn't been enough to just suck his cock, but it would do for now.

"I love you." She said against his lips. Light streamed in when she opened the door, and he only just had time to pull up his pants when she walked away. When he stuck his head out of the door, he saw her walk past the party on the other side of the wall, headed back to the bathroom.

Bran reentered the party, this time in much better spirits. Nori returned a few minutes later, and talk resumed around her as they continued eating. When she came back, she changed seats with Bethany and took Bran's hand in hers, squeezing it reassuringly when he joined the conversation for the first time that night.

After dinner Aveline, Isabela, met Nori, Merrill and Bethany at Leandra's and brought Nori wine and presents for her wedding night. Nori had declined Isabela's generous offer of strippers delivered right to her mother's house, but they were all there for a modest celebration, and Nori was ready to settle in for the night.

She was staying at her mother's because they had an early spa appointment the next morning, leading right into wedding preparations and it was easier if Bran didn't have to drive her all around town. They hadn't spent a night apart since they'd gotten back together, and though Nori was comforted by her childhood home, it was still strange not to sleep next to Bran's body, his warmth mingling with hers.

After opening the risque and sometimes embarrassing assortment of gifts, Aveline and Isabela left, giggling into the night as they walked around the corner to where Fenris was picking them up. Nori readied herself for bed, feeling a little lightheaded from the wine. Her face hurt from laughing, trying to deflect the nosy questions that had been volleyed at her all night. There was quite a lot of interest about Bran, especially from Merrill and Isabela and she wondered if the two had been talking beforehand.

"Hi, I'm going to bed now." Nori said when Bran picked up her call.

"Did you have a good time with your friends?"

"I shouldn't have drank so much. What did you and Jason do?"

"Nothing much. We left about an hour after you did and he and Carver sat around drinking beers with me until I decided to go to bed."

"You're already in bed? You should have said something."

"Then you'd want to get off the phone and I've been waiting all night to talk to you. I miss you, even though you're probably less than five miles away. Sleeping alone is just wrong."

"I miss you too. Tomorrow night I'll be back with you, and we'll be married." He could hear her smile when she said it and it made him smile back at her.

"That's what I'm looking forward to most. Get some rest. I love you."

"I love you too, Bran. Goodnight." Nori sighed as she ended the call. She did miss him and wondered if she was going to get any sleep. There was so much in her mind, anticipation, happiness and fizzy, unfocused energy, but the wine and food combined did its job and she fell into an easy sleep not long after she got into bed.

"Wake up Norina." Leandra was sitting on the edge of Nori's bed, shaking her daughter slightly to wake her.

"Mom?" Nori said, half-asleep as she spoke.

"It's your wedding day darling. I'm so happy for you." Leandra said, leaning down to kiss her daughter's warm face.

Nori sat up in the bed and smiled blearily at her mother, waking up as she remembered it really was her wedding day. Outside of her window the snow had stopped falling, but had blanketed everything during the night, icicles forming on the edges of the roofs, untouched white snow covering the ground.

"Come on downstairs and have some breakfast, then we'll head out to the spa." Leandra said, standing up. Nori nodded and her mother left the room. She'd be plucked and pampered in the morning and this afternoon the stylist was coming to the house, along with the musicians, photographer and caterers. It was going to be a busy day even before the wedding even started, but she lay back against the pillows and smiled, thinking of Bran.

* * *

Carver had no clue what was happening in the next room. All he could hear was giggling and the occasional swear word coming through the wall. Merrill, his one ally, had gone downstairs to help his mother but Beth and Nori were cloistered in the other room.

He was sitting in his room with Jason and Bran, watching Bran pace as Jason flicked idly through the channels on the television. Bran was about to drive him from his own room even if the only place he could go was just to sit on the toilet. Watching the man pace around in his tuxedo, his face trying to mask his anxiety, nervous energy that was pooling into Carver, making him twitchy. If he had any doubts that the man loved his sister before, he'd been proven wrong; no one was this nervous about getting married if they weren't in love.

"Right, I'm going over there to check on everything." Carver finally announced when he could take it no more. Waiting was bullshit.

When he got to the room, the scene wasn't what he'd expected. He'd seen movies, pictures of weddings before. The women ran around in a big group, all clustered and doing a million things, pecking like penned up hens. Nori and Bethany were in there drinking and watching a movie. Nori was completely done up, she had on her blue dress, which was actually so light that it was only blue when it moved, the ruffles making the hue wink into existence.

Carver was no judge of women's clothes, let alone wedding dresses, but he thought it was a very pretty dress and she looked nice with the silver jewelry and shoes. Her shoes were actually sitting on the side of the bed while Nori sipped what he suspected was a clear soda mixed with the vodka from the bottle that was open on Bethany's desk. That, at least explained the laughter he'd been hearing through the wall. In one corner of the room was the photographer and Carver recalled the petite woman coming in and taking pictures of the anxious Bran when he was getting ready.

"What are you two doing?" He asked, somewhat pointlessly.

"Waiting for mother to send someone to tell us it's time to go down. Do you want a drink?" Beth asked, giggling a bit. She teetered ever so slightly as she got off the bed and he didn't know if it was from drunkenness or the heels she was wearing on the carpeted floor.

"Yes." He was relieved they were sharing. He walked over to the desk and pouring vodka into a plastic cup. The soda was sitting on the floor next to the desk and he added just enough to mask the alcohol with scant bubbles.

"Is Bran over there? You guys can come in here and wait." Nori said. She missed him. They hadn't seen each other since he'd kissed her goodbye at the restaurant, hadn't spoken since she'd called him to get the Hawke necklace out of the safe, which she'd forgotten to do.

"Isn't that bad luck?" Carver asked, gulping down his shot. It burned, but took the edge off his nerves. Nori just looked at him, giving him that 'don't be daft' look she'd perfected. He shrugged before leaving the room.

"What are they doing?" Bran asked immediately when he walked back into the room.

"Drinking." Carver replied honestly. "They said we can come over and share their vodka." Jason tossed the remote aside, looking hopeful.

Carver and Jason walked over and Nori was standing in the middle of the room, the photographer drawn out of her corner. She was taking pictures as they walked in, trying to catch Bran's reaction. When he did finally come into the room, seconds after Jason had cleared the doorway, Nori flung herself at him. She had a joyous smile on her face as she wrapped her arms around Bran. Bran responded the same way, lifting her off the ground with the force of his hug. Nori's stocking-clad feet were just visible under the ruffled hem of her dress as he hugged her, and Beth cooed in the background, putting her hand over her mouth. When he finally put her down, Bran said something to Nori, talking into her hair and she smiled, a huge private smile just for him.

When Bran walked over the threshold of the room, he was still caught up in his own nervousness and didn't think about what she'd look like until the second she came into view. Nori was always beautiful, but today she was radiant. Her hair reminded him of how it was the night they'd gone to that fundraiser for work, when she'd first called him handsome.

But it was different, drawn back in the same style but done in curls and had a silver band holding it away from her face, with tendrils falling out beneath it. Her dress was the light blue she'd wanted, and covered in an intricate pattern of silver beads. She'd described it to him, using terms like "drop waist" and "fitted top" but to him it just looked like Nori. Where the beading stopped on the long bodice it flowed into a ruffled skirt but when he hugged her, he found his arm touching her bare back. It was cut low in the back and it looked to him like a stylish dress from another era.

After an eternity, the two broke apart with Nori pulling Bran by the hand, saying "Have a drink with us."

All of them stood in a circle in the tiny room, drinks were poured and passed around. Beth cleared her throat.

"I know we all have speeches for later, but let's just toast to the happy couple. I'm so glad this day has come for the both of you." She said, holding up her glass.

"Dad" Jason started, then shook his head smiling. "Nori. You both are incredible. Congratulations." He held up his glass alongside Beth's.

"Well it's my turn is it?" Carver started, cracking a smile. "I've never seen my sister happier than she's been with you. I hope the two of you are like this forever." In his mind he silently added that if his sister ever grew unhappy, he wouldn't give Bran a chance to get a head start before he came after him.

"Here here." Jason added and they all drank deeply from their glasses. The photographer worked ghost-like around their circle, snapping pictures from every angle.

"Well, I thought the party was downstairs." Leandra was standing in the door, smiling at the assembled group. "Apparently I've missed all the fun as I try to corral all of the guests into their seats."

They all laughed, and Carver went over to his mother's side.

"Is it time yet?" He asked.

"Yes, but you're going down last. Merrill is downstairs waiting, but Jason and Bran go first, then Bethany and last you and Nori."

"What are we waiting for?" Carver asked. Leandra leaned back out of the doorway listening for a moment.

"I think it's time." She said softly as Nori heard the string quartet begin to play. The photographer slid out of the room, heading out first to set up for more pictures. Bran gave Nori's hand one last squeeze before following Leandra out of the room.


	31. A Winter Wedding Part 2

In the past, Nori had often thought her mother foolishly sentimental for insisting that they keep the ballroom of Amell estate intact. The room existed more in stories than it did in life. Bethany in particular loved to hear the tales of Amell parties, conjuring in her mind a room filled with people and music, able to see through the blank space it had become. The ballroom was an old, large, forlorn room, the painted fresco on the ceiling deteriorating, turning to flakes and dust, the picture growing more lost with every passing year, the woodblock floor scuffed and dented. Aside from the few parties her mother held either in the name of tradition or in her various duties as the wife of a politician, the room had seen little use and become an empty space, a void in their house. On her wedding day, Nori was glad that Leandra hadn't listened to her and converted it into smaller rooms.

The walls of the room were draped with long, white curtains, lit with glowing, amber lights that reflected up the sides and showed the recently restored ceiling. Just out of sight under those curtains were the decorations for the reception, after the ceremony guests would be whisked out of the room so it could be broken down and set up into long dinner tables. Tall glass vases harbored long frosted birch branches that glistened in the lights, like tall, twinkling trees. Rows of chairs covered in fabric tied with light blue sashes were filled with people, all sitting and watching her wedding party trail up the aisle carpeted with white rose petals.

Nori and Carver were standing just outside the room full of assembled friends and family, peeking in the door way to watch first Bran, then Jason followed by Bethany go down the aisle. As she came down the stairs from Bethany's room where she'd been stuck for the past two hours, she marveled at the decorations that had gone up since she'd last seen the house. Before it had been in the almost perfect state that accompanied the confusion in the house as decorators, caterers, musicians, florists and many assorted others struggled to finish up.

The whole house was decorated in various shades of whites, icy blues, silvers and dull gold, bathed in warm, amber light. Small arrangements of greenery accompanied the white flowers that hung off the mantels, on small tables and nearly every other flat surface she'd passed on her way to the ballroom. From the kitchen she could smell different foods mingling with the fragrant flowers that she clutched in her bouquet. The air around them was cool, the rooms deliberately left colder than normal to accommodate the number of people that would be heating them up, and Nori's skin was dotted with tiny goose pimples as she waited, but incongruously she was sweating at the same time.

Inside the doors, the violins swelled to a crescendo as Bethany walked down the aisle, bouquet of white lilies, amaryllis and roses held between her hands. Her dress was a pale pink column gown, airy crinkled chiffon, sleeveless but coupled with a long sleeved bolero in the matching hue. Watching Bethany walk away from her, with sure, deliberate steps made Nori nervous, and she found herself wringing Carver's hand.

"It's okay, Nori." Carver said to her once more. She'd been squeezing his hand since they'd come down the stairs, and it unnerved him. He'd never known her to be anything less than confident and bossy, completely assured of herself and here she was next to him, just as nervous as any other bride. Carver loved seeing her chewing on her bottom lip, her face at once both jubilant and nervous, so different from her normal assured, calm demeanor. He loved his sister, but it was when she showed her frailty that he remembered how strong she was.

"I know." She replied just as the music changed, an entirely new piece to mark her entrance. Their cue. "Carver, I love you. I'm so proud of you. You're a wonderful artist, don't ever forget that." She whispered hurriedly to her brother. Carver fought to keep the frown off his face; it felt like she was saying goodbye. Bran could marry her, he could love her, but he wasn't going to take her from them - she was a Hawke. He pushed down the rising tide of emotions in his chest and kissed her warm cheek.

"Thank you. You look beautiful Sister, you really do. Bran's the luckiest sod in Thedas. Let's get you married." He held out his arm to her and she slipped her arm through the crook of it. She shot a nervous smile at him, and he tried to be reassuring as he answered her look, smiling back at her. They walked the few paces to the doorway, the two of them framed in light as they stood in the threshold of the room. Carver was sure that no one would even notice if he hadn't brushed his hair, because every eye was glued to Nori as they stepped together onto the aisle.

In front of him, Bran watched the group of people that had been seated in the rows of chairs stand up. The formal ballroom of the Amell estate was packed with people, despite Nori's insistence that the whole affair be _small_. The music of the string quartet swelled when she entered the room, but a hush fell over the assembled people. Other than looking a little overwhelmed, Nori was smiling brightly, in an almost embarrassed sort of way that reminded Bran of the smile she'd gave him when she'd first started working at the Keep, after he'd barged into her office and startled her.

Carver was also smiling broadly, a rare enough occurrence, but it looked so genuine and bittersweet that even Bran was moved. There had been a definite sense of loss throbbing from her family, mixed in with all the pushy preparations, the planning and enthusiasm. Bran didn't flatter himself to think that it was all about him, no, this was about missing Malcolm Hawke. A day when he should have been around, would have taken Carver's place in escorting Nori down the aisle. His absence was palpable, they all felt it, and Bran did too.

He'd just seen her upstairs, just looked at her loveliness in the blue gown that she'd hidden at her mother's house after her final alterations. But there was something about her as she came towards him, the way she wasn't looking around at anyone, even as she walked past them. It was as if they were alone, the audience made of specters and only the two of them were real. Bran didn't even want to blink, drinking in the sight of Nori coming towards him.

On feet that tiptoed up the aisle of their own accord, Nori walked arm in arm with Carver, knowing that her friends and family were surrounding her, but only really seeing Bran. She was aware, only vaguely of the people she passed as she walked by. Isabela and Fenris, looking as if they'd stepped off a magazine cover in their stylish perfection, Aveline and Donnic, holding hands and smiling at her, Varric, Sebastian, Graham and Tanwen, Merrill and Marlowe just before her mother and the seat left vacant for her father. It was all blurry, secondary, and distant to Bran. It almost felt as if he were whispering to her, saying things only she could hear as she approached.

Where Bran stood was an altar made by the company that decorated the room, and it was white brambles and greenery around an arch, pedestals with glass hurricanes filled with lights that sparkled. Flanking the sides were giant potted white poinsettias, the pots wrapped with fabric, tied with silver bows. In the middle of the arch, hanging low was a grand wreath of white flowers and silver branches, a white relief of the Amell crest just visible through the center. Around the altar there were candles, so numerous it looked as if the Chantry had set up shop in her mother's ballroom.

Bran's sister, Marilin, was actually performing their wedding ceremony and Nori remembered her from their brief meeting in the Chantry. She was dark haired and older than Bran by three years. Other than the rather thin nose they both had, her looks didn't favor Bran and was less like him in demeanor than Nori had expected. Marilin was unassuming and cheerful, and she struck Nori as emotionally intelligent and intuitive and less cerebral than her brother.

When they reached the flowered terminus of their stroll, Carver released Nori, stoutly shaking hands with Bran before leaving her side to take his seat. And then it was just the two of them, smiling shyly at each other as if they'd just been introduced. He looked, for once, unguarded as he gazed at her, all of his emotions easily read on his face. She was joyous, her whole body displayed the glee that filled her and her dancing eyes were locked with his as she took his hand.

"Welcome family and friends." As soon as Marilin spoke, the entire group of people took their seats, the gentle rustling of dresses and formal clothes filling the room briefly.

"Blessed be you who have come here in dedication to all that is loving, good and sacred. We bless you and welcome you in joy. May the Maker sustain you in life. May all that is noble and true in the universe inspire your lives together and bring peace to all." Marilin blessed the assembled group in a rich, commanding voice.

"The Maker, who is benevolent and merciful, whose presence is the happiness of every condition and sanctifies every relationship, bless us today in the uniting of these two souls."

It was as if the ceremony was only happening in the background, Bran thought as his sister's voice washed over him. Nori's warm, large hand was in his was his only connection to reality and he couldn't stop looking at her watching her neck sparkle with the gems of the Hawke necklace.

"Love is the light left to us by the Maker, it is the beacon that guides our way. Maker, though the darkness comes upon me, I shall embrace the light. I shall weather the storm. I shall endure. What you have created, no one can tear asunder."

His eyes went to Nori's hair, taking in the elaborately arranged in curls that were kept off of her face by yet more glittering accessories, but none of them glimmered like the dress, the design on the tight bodice done in all sequins, beads and embroidery. She was bewitching and he near stupefied, only able to bring himself out of his torpor when he realized Marilin was looking at him expectantly, the room silent.

"I do." Bran said, just half a beat late. It was long enough for Nori to notice and she gave him a bemused look. He smirked back at her, hitching his mouth up in such a familiar way that it made her smile as Jason moved at his side, handing him the ring Bran was to place on Nori's finger.

"What was once only mine is now ours, as I bond to you and share in your life. This ring is a symbol of our bond, unbroken and enduring." Bran recited from memory. He'd practiced, unwilling to leave even one line to chance.

"And do you, Norina, take this man to be your husband, friend, your love, and lifelong companion, to share your life with his? To support each other through times of trouble, and rejoice with you in times of happiness; to treat each other with respect, love, and loyalty through all the trials and triumphs of your lives together?" Marilin asked, looking at Nori, and Bran paid attention this time, listening to the vow Nori was swearing.

"I do." Nori answered and this time it was Bethany that handed over the ring, letting Nori slip the simple gold band onto his finger.

"What was once only mine is now ours, as I bond to you and share in your life. This ring is a symbol of our bond, unbroken and enduring." Nori pledged.

"Then let it be known that this couple is blessed by the Maker in their holy union, wed to each other in the name of the Maker and his bride Andraste. It is in His Name that I pronounce you bonded for life." Marilin grinned at the two of them before saying to Bran, "You may kiss the bride now."

Releasing her hand, Bran wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him in one swift movement. His grip was tighter than he'd intended and he could feel her chest crushed against his as he lowered his mouth to hers, sealing their bond with a kiss. The strings began to play again, the music as loud and triumphant as the cheering in Bran's head. When they broke apart, she gave him a look, that in any other time would have him locking the door. In the background around them, he heard applause, heard Jason whistle from his other side, and the noise was all that helped him keep his composure. It took all the force he could muster, but he suppressed his desire to lean in and kiss her again, then lead her far, far away from the crowd of people, far away from all the watching eyes.

A few minutes after walked away from the altar, she was standing next to Bran in an alcove, signing the official marriage certificate in front of his sister. Nori's hand trembled slightly as she held the pen in hand, but was steady as she signed her name to the paper. Her name was still Norina Hawke, just as it always had been, but she felt different signing it that time. She could add his name if she wanted, it was hers now too. _What was once only mine is now ours, as I bond to you and share in your life_. She'd just said the words, meaning them as she'd looked in Bran's brown eyes and spoke, but the concept was dizzying, so wonderful and terrifyingly large.

Their guests were being served drinks and hors d'oeuvres downstairs, milling about as the ballroom was reset for the dinner. The string quartet from the ceremony played lively music, taking requests and two stations of bartenders made wedding cocktails as people shuffled around the rooms. Standing on the balcony looking down at the sea of heads, Nori could see the tables of elaborate food she'd help pick out, but wouldn't get a chance to taste. Crab cakes with smoked tomato remoulade, goat cheese crostini, oysters on the half shell, lobster bisque in shot glasses served with crisp lobster wontons, vegetable spring rolls with a sweet, spicy brown sauce, all paired with flowing champagne, chilled white wine, powerful shiraz, bellinis, martinis or a blue concoction called _Something Blue_ , made especially for the wedding.

Upstairs, in the small room used as a library, they posed for the photographer. The dark haired woman arranging the various people into groups, mostly standing in front of the large fireplace that, thankfully, kept the room warm despite the large window. After a few pictures, Nori was near to her wits end and her feet were beginning to hurt in her fabulous shoes when everyone cleared out so she could take portraits just with Bran.

"There's about a half hour left before everyone will be seated for dinner." Leandra informed them as she left. "I'll come back and tell you when we're ready."

Nori gave her mother a stiff nod, and the photographer seemed to sense that her feet were hurting, and shot most of the pictures with Nori sitting. Without the confusion of the others, the session went quickly and the photographer left them, going to take pictures of the guests and the cocktail hour.

"Finally." Nori said, once the door closed behind the photographer. She wrapped her arms around Bran and kissing him.

It took just seconds for their kiss to change, just moments before he went deeper into it and she could feel his arousal. She pressed into it, as ill-timed as it seemed, because she'd wanted nothing more than to just disappear with him after the ceremony. There was a rush of motion, fingers untying his tie, pushing his tuxedo jacket off his shoulders, and she felt him trying to figure out the dress.

"There's a zipper." She whispered, and she twisted to her side unhooking the eye closure that was just above the hidden side zipper. When he helped her out of her dress, he was shocked to discover she had on no bra or bustier, but had been held up by the rigid boning of the dress. It was a pleasant surprise.

Nori stood before him in just her stockings and underwear, the wedding dress hanging over a chair. Bran shucked his tuxedo pants and shirt quickly, turning back to where his anxious wife sat breathless on a chaise, garters unhooked, panties discarded. He groaned at the sight of her, and want barreled through him. This wouldn't be what he'd envisioned, he'd pictured something tender that night in their bed, but furious passion drove him and he scooped her nearly naked body into his arms, tongues fencing in another kiss.

Leandra came back to get them, knocking on the door as they were nearly finished dressing, Bran zipping Nori back into her dress.

"It's time." Her mother informed them, opening the door.

"You can't get out of this now." Bran said wryly, taking her hand as they walked back downstairs.

"Damn, I guess I should cancel that date I had planned for next week." Nori jested, but then changed tack, "Were you truly worried about that? I should hope not."

"No, I wasn't worried but I can tell you that I am relieved it's done."

"It's not done yet. There are about seventy-five of our closest friends and family in there waiting to party with us. Let's do our best, shall we?" Nori asked.

"I shall do whatever my lady wife desires." Bran replied smilingly.

"Oh, you're going to regret saying that." She laughed, just as they entered the restyled ballroom.


	32. Honeymoon

Nori let the water flow over her head in the shower as she touched the rough stone that lined the walls and smiled. This place was so unlike home, but comfortable and luxurious. She almost felt overindulged here, they were lazy, laying in bed all day, careless about tidying up, but she supposed that was what a vacation was supposed to be like. It had been so long since she'd taken one. The hot water hit her aching body and she let the pulsating shower head do its work. She was sore and they had yet to go skiing. They actually had yet to leave see most of the resort, since they'd holed up in their little space as soon as they arrived, gorging on the uninterrupted time together. Their honeymoon in the Vimmark Mountains was going fabulously so far.

Through the large picture window, Bran stared out for a moment before turning away, but the view kept drawing him back, beckoning him to look upon the snow covered mountains as he bustled about the kitchen, making dinner. The knobs and placements of everything in the kitchen was still foreign to him, and he had to search for nearly every other thing, despite already spending two days in the place. Their accommodations were so spacious, it felt criminal to describe it as merely a cabin. Normally, it would annoy him to no end, the perpetually lost feeling he got whenever he cooked in their cabin, but he hummed to himself as he continued searching the cabinets for the bowl he needed.

When he'd told Nori that he'd rented a cabin at a ski resort, she'd simply nodded, picturing the standard, quaint type of room that ski resorts seemed to specialize in. Pink curtains, wooden furniture and the standard, dirty fireplace that came in all the rooms. But she should have known better, should have known Bran better than that. He didn't do quaint.

The place where they were was a magnificent combination of luxury and mountaintop privacy. The cabin itself was nearly as big as their house, and though it was still heavy on the wood furniture, it eschewed quaint for a more relaxed feeling. Surrounding them were other cabins, arranged in a little village, but there was mostly snow, uninterrupted views of the mountains and the snow plows that came down the lane every so often to clear the snow that kept falling. There was a giant main hotel nearby, packed with skiers and families. It was far enough away that if they wanted to avail themselves of the amenities, the bar, the restaurant, the spa, they would have to take the car. Neither of them had made mention of leaving so far, not even to walk into the heated garage and drive the two minutes down the road to the main hotel.

Nori came over and plunked herself down at the small wooden table, hefting his laptop under one arm. She'd protested when he'd packed it, knowing that he would do work, but she knew that her arguments wouldn't sway him. He simply _couldn't_ be completely cut off, his position demanded it, even now, and she understood that, though it rankled her. Part of her chided herself, saying they could have waited until after the Viscount left office to get married, but she hadn't actually known he was retiring until after Bran proposed. After they'd gotten back together, waiting was the last thing she'd wanted to do.

Opening the top of the sleek piece of technology, she turned it on and checked her own email as she sat wrapped in a fluffy white robe, her wet hair swept to one side. Bran smiled at her as she sat down, admiring how pretty she looked in the dying sunlight, her wet hair and bare feet making her look even younger. The evening sun was setting in the mountains and as the computer booted up, she looked at it, resting her chin on her fist as she gazed out at the snow on the ground twinkling pale pink in the sunset.

"Bran, the photographers sent the preview of the wedding pictures!" She exclaimed. There were only seventy-five pictures, a small sampling of the overall total, but the wedding had been just three days ago. She was surprised their preview gallery had been done this quickly.

Bran abandoned his cooking to come and watch the slideshow over her shoulder, remembering the past few days with a smile on his face. The pictures played in front of him and he was treated to a glittering Nori, getting ready, coming towards him, the two of them getting married. At the time he hadn't noticed through his nervousness, but the beautiful white candles and flowers made a stunning picture. The colors of the pictures were so vivid, he almost felt transported, could smell the greenery and candles as he watched pictures go by of him staring at Nori during the ceremony.

There was a slide of the elaborate dinner, and though he'd been a little wary of having such a selection of food, he couldn't recall ever eating a finer meal for so many people. They'd served a mixed green salad with Roquefort cheese terrine and a creamy winter squash soup to begin. For dinner he'd had the pan roasted pheasant breast, served on a bed of sauteed red cabbage, surrounded by brussels sprouts, the outsides cooked until the edges were brown and crispy, mushrooms and tiny tortellini all covered in a port reduction. Nori surprised him by eating the vegetarian option, stating that she just didn't feel like pheasant. She'd had vegetable ravioli and arancini filled with peas, with braised artichokes and a giant Portabello mushroom, all paired with wine he'd helped to select to go along with the food.

There was a picture of their wedding cake, the towering all-white confection, decorated with gum paste flowers and tiny pearls all over. There were the other desserts that went along with it, the berry and champagne sorbet that Nori had eaten several servings of, the fruit tart with the colorful mix of berries, the assorted chocolates truffles that had been dusted with gold. Bran watched the pictures go by, every once in a while seeing a familiar face: Jason eating cake, Bethany laughing, Carver and Merrill drinking champagne, Marlowe and Leandra talking over their dinner plates.

At the wedding, he'd danced with Nori, with Leandra, Bethany, Lenora, Brennan, Isabela and Aveline, just about anyone that he came across, but he only really thought about the dances with Nori. A picture captured her, all a bluish, shimmering blur mid-spin as they danced the first dance alone, Bran's back to the camera as he spun her. They'd kissed when the bells were rung, smiled into the camera and greeted all of the guests packed into Leandra's house. An excited Nori smiled into the camera, not knowing it was focused on her as she talked to Lenora. Bran saw a picture of a moment he hardly remembered, him and his father talking in a corner, his father clapping him on the back approvingly as they both laughed. He suspected there would be many pictures like that, the whole wedding still felt surreal to him.

Of all the pictures of their wedding, Nori's favorite and the one that would get blown up and framed to be placed over their fireplace was one from the end of the night. She was sitting on Bran's lap, her shoes kicked off nearby and he had one arm around her waist, anchoring her to him. They were tucked in an unusual pose, her facing him, looking down at her new husband and he's holding a drink in his free hand. His bow tie is undone and her hair is coming loose, curls dancing around her face and down her neck. The camera caught Bran looking up at her, his trademark smirk on his face as she smiled down at him.

The photographer must have captured them from around a corner because Bran's face is more visible than hers, but her profile is set with the wide smile that felt effortless to wear the whole day. Nori knew that a few seconds later they kissed, for the next picture from the photographer captured it - but she preferred this shot. It's a black and white picture, but the kind where the monochrome is tinged with blue, perfectly suiting her blue dress.

After that there were pictures of guests, Varric and Bianca smiling into the camera, Sebastian drinking champagne, Brennan toothily grinning into the camera, Isabela and Fenris, though drunk, looking no worse for the wear as they stood together, clenched in an embrace. Aveline and Donnic dancing, Aveline leading.

"Well dinner tonight won't be as elaborate as that one, but it's almost done." Bran said, moving back towards the stove after the slides finished.

"That's what really counts." Nori informed him, just as she pulled up her email on the computer. The pictures were beautiful, unexpectedly making her teary as she recalled just three days prior.

"Hey, can you check my email? Make sure the office hasn't sent me anything important." Bran asked, as he stirred a pot.

"Sure. What are you making anyway?"

"Spaghetti." He replied.

Nori flipped through her own email first, and saw nothing interesting then moved onto Bran's. He was paranoid that things were going to fall apart somehow, but she saw nothing as she read through the numerous messages that had accumulated in their days off.

"Anything?" Bran asked, hearing her close the top of the laptop.

"Sebastian sent out a message saying that the toilets were backed up."

"Ew. I'm glad we missed that." Bran replied in a haughty tone and Nori shrugged.

She'd make a joke about how crap can follow you anywhere, but Bran would call her vulgar and she'd just wind up shrugging again. It was funny how often he expressed disdain for anything he deemed coarse, too rude or vulgar, but he was the most lascivious, lustful man she'd ever met. Acting out his licentious fantasies wasn't for the faint of heart, and a smile crossed her face at the thought of what they'd spent the day doing. Her arms still ached, even after the shower.

Later that night, after dinner, they were laying intertwined, she in his arms in front of the fireplace, music playing softly in the darkened cabin. It felt strange for neither of them to have anything to do, nothing pulling their attention away from each other. Nori had to fight the urge to get up and just _do something,_ anything, when Bran wasn't in the room. They wound up talking a lot, getting used to the unhurried pace, the lack of outside pressures and anxiety between them. It would be more like this from now on.

"Are you cold?" He asked her. She was still wearing the robe, her hair mostly dry.

"A little. I should get dressed."

"I'll have none of that, wife." He reached up onto the couch with one hand and pulled a throw off the leather seating, covering most of Nori with it.

"You like that word." She noticed he'd been using it a lot to refer to her since they'd arrived. Nori didn't mind at all, in fact she kind of liked the endearment. The word _husband_ was still clunky to her, and she'd started at the check in desk when someone referred to Bran as her husband, but she was confident it would grow on her.

"I only like it when he refers to you." He answered and he felt her smile against his chest.

"So what's next?" Nori asked.

"For us? We're going to work for six more weeks, have a big party for Cullen, accidentally forget to tell him how hard it actually is to _be_ the Viscount, then you and I are going to ride off into the sunset." Nori laughed, and he felt her chuckles vibrating against his chest, but then he continued. "You've got plans, your book and school, and I'm going on to what sounds like early retirement in a glass office. We've still got that house from the Viscount, I assumed you'd want to renovate before we moved, and Jason's graduating in the spring. I offered him my house, since I figured we'd be leaving."

"You're giving it to him?"

"Not precisely. He'll pay rent, but I got the feeling he preferred that to living with his mother. I think he just wants to be on his own for a while."

"Oh, I understand that." Nori said darkly. There had been a time not too long ago when she just couldn't face going home again. It was funny how the passage of time had changed things.

"You're worried about not being busy? Don't be. There's always going to be something, especially with you and school. We just won't be busy in the same way."

"I hope so. But I am glad I'll get to see more of you." Nori stretched her back, arching it away from him before coming back, sliding her hands upward to his tousled hair. "I like this, just having a chance to be with you."

"I'll always make time for this, to _just be_ with you." Bran promised. It was what he'd promised himself when he'd bought her engagement ring. His hand rubbed her back lazily, and his eyes closed. He would always make time for Nori.


	33. An Admirable Weekend

The pace was livelier when Bran and Nori got back to the Viscount's Keep, everyone in full swing for the transition. There were an inordinate number of seemingly trivial tasks to take care of before the administration switched over, and Nori had started briefing her replacement, a woman named Ser Agatha. She was enthusiastic about the whole thing, but Nori didn't know if she had what it would take to run interference between the Assembly and the Viscount's office, but it wasn't her worry.

Cullen had been seen stalking the halls, talking with Viscount Dumar. Nori had only run into him once but he simply congratulated her on her recent wedding and moved along. She had the feeling he wanted to talk to her, but not out in the open.

She went along her tasks with Brennan, helping her assistant figure out what to do about the loose ends. The Assembly was still out of session so Nori had an easier time than she did leading up to the year end break.

Viscount Dumar's personal papers were being transferred to his private storage, and he had already vacated the official residence. Cullen and Nori's cousin Solona had children and wanted to make sure the home was suitable for them before moving into it. His accounts were set up for his retirement, as was the rest of the needs that went along with it, the private car and security around his condominium.

Bran was standing in his usual spot on the landing, watching Nori as she came out of one of the legal counsel offices on the first floor. She was wearing this sweater dress thing, it was all fitted and grey, and woolen tights underneath it, paired with high boots, a look that he loved on her. That morning he'd watched her get dressed, zipping up the over-the-knee boots she wore, running a hand along her legs as she sat on the edge of their bed. Her hair was still highlighted brown, the color redone for the wedding and looked pretty as it fell in crinkly waves to her shoulders. She somehow looked younger than when she'd started working at the Keep.

"She looks happy." Viscount Dumar had come up beside him without his noticing as Bran observed Nori.

"I'm a good husband." Bran replied tartly.

"Since when?" Marlowe asked, an eyebrow launching itself further up towards his bald head.

"Well, I'm a new husband. We're all good when we're new. Ask her in a year, when the novelty has worn off, then we'll really see how I'm doing." Bran said, earning a chuckle from Marlowe.

"You'll be fine. She's crazy about you, always has been." The Viscount told him, taking a sip of his coffee as he spoke. "It was a lovely wedding, Bran." Marlowe said, and Bran nodded in acknowledgement of the compliment. Though they'd been back at work for a few days, he hadn't done more than receive assorted congratulations and dive into all the things that needed to be done before they left office.

"Are you going to be a dad again?" The Viscount asked, a smile crossing his face.

"Afraid not. No honeymoon baby for us, although I assure you we tried our best." Bran said smugly, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he answered. Marlowe chuckled again, a slight wheeze to his laughter. Truthfully, though it was a bit soon to be sure, but they hadn't really been trying yet.

Nori was gone from his line of sight, she'd walked out of view as they'd spoken and Bran turned to the Viscount, wondering what brought him over.

"Your speech is finished?" Bran guessed. It hardly seemed right to call the scant remarks Marlowe was saying about Cullen a speech, but Varric had worked on it diligently.

"He just gave it to me. What's next?" Marlowe asked Bran.

"Pardons." Bran said grimly. It would be among Marlowe's last official acts in office, but Bran feared their last weeks would be filled with more pressing matters and pushed them to the forefront.

"Well I'd better take a look at them." Marlowe said resignedly. Bran noticed his friend wanted less and less to do with ruling as each day passed. He understood. Unfortunately, there was more that required his attention these days, and Bran was growing weary of meetings in locked rooms and foreign dignitaries.

"What about the other thing?" The Viscount asked Bran as they walked back towards his office.

"This afternoon, probably." Bran answered quickly. Marlowe nodded and the two men walked past Elthina. There was a lot to do still.

At home things were changing as well. Once their wedding was over, Nori and Bran had begun their remodel on the Falcon's Rest.

The new house was being remodeled for them, Bethany working on it with Nori. He'd come home the day before to see them both huddled at the dining room table, two pairs of dark eyes fixed on him when he walked into the room. It was startling how alike their eyes were, since the two women didn't look that much alike. Though it was clear that they were related, they didn't look as close as sisters until he noticed their eyes. Bethany's eyes were intense and dark as Nori's were, but lacked the shrewd cynicism of the older sister.

In front of them were blueprints rolled up, floorplans, photographs of what looked like every square inch of the house, and books that Bethany had obviously carted over for he and Nori to look at.

"Do you want your interior decorator to help on the new house, Bran?" Bethany asked kindly. Bran snorted.

"Interior decorator? No, I don't want my mother to come and work on the new house, Maker. She'd be insufferable."

"Tanwen decorated your house?" Nori asked incredulously as he sat down next to her.

"Yes, twice after I got divorced. After the second time I begged her to go back to Orlais. But she did get it right, it is comfortable and feels like me, but I daresay she cheated with a whole lifetime of knowledge about me to draw on."

"Only you would say your own mother cheated by knowing you well enough to decorate for you." Nori commented with a dry laugh.

"Bethany's got some ideas, and the house has been added to over the years, no need to worry about historical restrictions. But there are some things we could do..." Nori explained, turning back to the mess of paper on the table and Bran felt himself shift into nodding mode, wherein he just nodded and looked interested while people talked around him. Most useful when he was working.

* * *

It was a pity he couldn't use that look whenever he went into _the room_. He never even liked to think of the place, every meeting within it always stressful and dire. In his office, Bran was preparing for an inevitable meeting in that room that he found distasteful. They had to go someplace secure and he loathed the secure rooms, the panels built into the walls that concealed the imaging device that took his handprint. It confirmed that he was the poor sod called to the room at all hours, even more often than the Viscount.

There was something just under the surface, something brewing, a mess that Cullen was sure to inherit, the steps just before outright war. Nori knew it, though she wasn't the one that had the high security clearance like Bran. There hadn't been a war or real armed conflict in Thedas for many, many years, since Orlais and Ferelden both signed their treaty and laid down arms after years of skirmishes. The tense peace that held in the North was close to shattering, and in the Free Marches they were still busy fighting amongst themselves like squabbling children. She understood why her father had pushed so hard for a formal solidification of the Free Marches instead of the loose confederation that still held.

The visitor came that afternoon, the whole Keep in awe as he strode through the lobby, flanked by the guards that looked superfluous in his dangerous wake. Nori was in her office, and missed the commotion until she was called to the Viscount's office. Apparently he wanted to greet her and congratulate the new bride, Elthina explained as she whispered into the phone. Pushing back her chair, Nori rose and put on new lipstick, unable to hide her smile in the mirror as she stared at herself, then went up to the Viscount's office.

In the middle of the room, under the watchful eyes of the Viscount, surrounded by Bran, Sebastian, Varric and Aveline, who had also arrived without her knowledge, he was there, almost as she remembered him. The black hair was just the same, a bit longer perhaps, but he wasn't getting any awards on this day.

"Norina, may I present Admiral Loghain Mac Tir of Ferelden." Sebastian said, introducing them. "Admiral, this is Norina Hawke." Bran cleared his throat pointedly and Sebastian added hastily, "Williams."

"Admiral." Nori said, trying to suppress her laughter as she held her hand out to him.

"Madam." Loghain said, his face neutral and blank. She made a mental note to never play poker with him as he shook her hand. Breaking the handshake, he yanked her hand towards him and she was pulled roughly into a hug, her fuzzy grey sweater dress insufficient to protect her from the many medals pinned to his chest. Giggling at the old soldier, she hugged him back as the room grew ever more silent around them. Nori could feel Loghain breathing into her hair, and she marveled that he felt the same, just as she remembered him.

"Andraste's flaming ass you look _old_ Loghain. It's not been that long since I last saw you. Something like a year and half and you've aged a decade." Nori laughed as they separated, kissing him on the cheek. With some satisfaction, she saw that her lipstick left a mark and used her thumb to wipe it away. He didn't look any older than when she'd first met him, but she swore Loghain had some sort of magic that made him never age. Mostly she said it to needle him, knowing that he wasn't exactly vain, but his age had always been a bit of a sore spot.

"We're all older madam, but only you grow more beautiful. May I offer congratulations? Marriage suits you." Loghain said, dipping his head respectfully towards Bran as he did. Varric chuckled behind her and she heard him mutter something under his breath, but she didn't catch what he said.

"Thank you." Nori said, blushing slightly. "I'm not actually supposed to be here, so I should let you all get to your very important business."

"Neither am I." Varric said, retreating towards the door. "But it was an honor to meet you Admiral."

"And you Serah Tethras." Loghain said. "It was good to see you again, Nori." He offered in a marginally softer voice.

"Please, give Anora my regards." Nori said, earning another nod from Loghain as she and Varric left.

"So you know the Admiral?" Varric asked in a most unsubtle manner as soon as they exited the Viscount's office.

"No, I just love to hug all strange men in uniform." Nori quipped. She saw that Varric was not to be put off and turned the questioning around on him. "What did you say when he hugged me?"

"To Bran? _You're in trouble_."

"What? No. Loghain knew my father." Nori explained, telling the partial truth.

"Ah," Varric said, only somewhat convinced.

Nori went back to her office, waving Varric away and thought about Loghain, a smile slowly creeping across her face now that she was alone and unscrutinized. She hadn't seen him for some time now, but they'd always maintained friendly terms since their first meeting.

She'd been twenty-one years old, and living in Highever, getting a headstart on the thesis that was to become known as the bane of her young existence. It was summer, a long and sultry summer and she lived in a shared house with two other girls, one from her ballet class and a very serious girl intent on getting her into graduate school for an MBA by any means necessary. When she'd signed up for an independent study, she really did mean to get a jump on the thesis she needed to finish to graduate, knowing that the following spring she'd likely spend drunk and barely attending class. The first few weeks she'd been diligent, doing her research and checking in with her advisor, but by the time her mother called her and asked her to go to Denerim in her father's stead, Nori was reduced to sleeping late and drinking warm beers as the sun rose, trying to do a grand plie with her ballet friend/roommate Caryn.

"Darling, I know this is short notice, but your father isn't able to go to Denerim. He was supposed to sit at the Admiral's table and apparently this is a very important award." Leandra tittered over the phone line.

"Mother, I don't have a dress or money for the train." That wasn't exactly true, but all her money was earmarked for groceries and tequila.

"I was just getting to that Norina, we're going to send you enough for the trip and a little extra. I worry about you, but I trust that your doing well with your studies."

"Of course." Nori lied easily, the way that every child in college lies to their worried parents.

When she'd gotten off the phone and walked to the ATM on campus, her mother had already deposited the funds and it was far, far more than Nori would need for an overnight trip to Denerim. She booked a ticket to the city on the high-speed train and went home to pack. Her mother had apparently and very sorrowfully informed them that Nori was going in place of her ill father, with deepest regrets.

The award wasn't just any special commendation or honor, it was a lifetime service award that was being named for Admiral Loghain. Somehow her mother had forgotten to mention that part.

Clad in a dress that cost far too much money (she had the store send the bill to her parents, knowing they would yell but eventually pay for the designer dress), she walked in. Her hair was swept off her neck in an artistic knot, tendrils of dark hair hanging down and sweeping her face. The dress was gorgeous, artistry in the form the prettiest black ball gown she'd ever laid eyes on. Her mother would forgive her once she saw it. It was strapless and swept the floor with a gently pleated skirt, the folds falling from the cinched waist. But the best part about the dress was the it was made from handmade Orlesian lace, the back of the bodice black lace that fit tight against her back, her skin visible through the loops in the fabric. Sexy, but demure enough for a black tie reception for a decorated war hero.

It worked out well, she was able to wear her own shoes and carry a small black evening bag she already owned, suitable for formal events, that once belonged to her mother.

What she hadn't expected was to be sitting with the Admiral, at the table of honor. Her father had been highly anticipated, but no one looked disappointed with her appearance in his place. In fact, Loghain looked almost pleased when she sat down next to him, making her apologies for her father.

Until she started drinking.

Young as she was, she didn't anticipate the potent, free flowing wines, or the champagne that kept being refilled and set in front of her place setting. Once enough drink had been taken, she turned to Loghain and started brazenly questioning him.

The man of honor had been sitting stoically, answering people with terse, one word answers if questioned and eventually the assembled well-wishers learned to leave him alone. He sat next to her with his arms crossed over his uniformed chest, glaring out at people. But Nori was drunk and couldn't help herself.

"Admiral Mac Tir, may I call you Loghain?"

"That is my name, madam."

"So Loghain it is." Nori giggled, rolling his name around in her drunken mouth. "Loghain. Loghain. Why not Logan?"

"It's my understanding that it is a family name, but my mother never elaborated." He said stiffly, trying not to focus on how pleasing the sound of his name was when it came from her.

"Do you like your career?" Nori asked too loudly as another glass of champagne was set down in front of her.

"There are trying times with any path, but on the whole, yes."

"So you enjoy war." Nori stated. At that, his eyebrows shot up and she had the impression that she finally had his full attention.

"I didn't say that. You aren't Fereldan, not really, and you have no idea what it is like to give of yourself in service." Loghain over at her, incensed, his heavy lips in a snarl under his rather large nose but then calmed himself, rubbing a large hand over his jaw as he closed his pale grey eyes. "I am sorry, I shouldn't have dismissed your heritage. You are drunk and I am an old man with war stories that aren't remotely interesting to young women such as yourself."

"Yes they are." Nori replied in a voice that would have tricked him into thinking she was sober, had he not been watching her all night. Her brown eyes leveled him as she met his gaze and suddenly he felt too aware of her, heat rising under his collar as they locked eyes.

"But you're right, I haven't served and I am sorry, Loghain. My mouth got the better of me. I meant no disrespect." She didn't drop her gaze as he expected her to, but looked straight into his eyes as she apologized. Even chastened, she wasn't afraid of him. He'd made grown men cower, but this young woman, Nori, never wavered, even as drunk as she was. It impressed him greatly as he gazed back at her, taking in her beauty with a smile forming on his face. The buzz of the party dimmed around them, and he felt like they were alone in a room full of people.

He took her home, telling himself that she was drunk and he was responsible for her, even though she refused to walk out with him. Nori's sense of propriety extended so far as to not let the guest of honor walk out with a drunk woman, younger than his daughter getting into his car. When they arrived at the hotel they were both staying at, he steadied her as they walked, the exterior lights flooding their path with light, doormen opening all the obstacles for them. In the elevator, she pressed the button for the 8th floor, while he swiped the keycard that let him into the penthouse. Another pretension he could have done without, but it had been his daughter, Anora's doing. It wouldn't reflect well on her if her father didn't have the finest accommodations power could buy.

Loghain held her hand, listening to her giggle and talk to herself as they moved upwards in the elevator. He liked the weight of her hand, the feeling of warmth in his own. When the elevator stopped at the 8th floor, Nori simply looked at him, and he squeezed her hand. It was like a coded message, and she squeezed back, letting the doors close as she stayed in the lift. As the doors whooshed shut, he pulled her into a kiss, hooking one arm around her lacy waist as he crushed her to his chest.

"Good Morning." Loghain spoke from her side, his deep voice rumbling into her ear. Nori woke up and smiled sleepily at him, hungover from the night before.

"Mornin."

"I ordered you breakfast." He told her. "It should be here soon. No meat." He said, looking at her. "I noticed last night you didn't eat any."

"Thank you." She said, sitting up and pulling the blanket to her chest, more out of cold than modesty. He was warm next to her, but her naked body was cold, her feet icy under the blanket.

Nori wasn't at all worried that someone might see her other than Loghain, the suite they were in was vast and they were quite alone. They were in the private bedroom, but she knew there was a whole living room on the other side of the door. She looked around, wincing as she turned her head too quickly. She was sitting in a giant bed, a decorative tufted headboard behind her back, on white sheets that had no doubt been pristine before her arrival, a white on white striped duvet pulled up to her breast. Loghain had taken her dress off the floor and hung it over the back of a chair, her shoes and bag nearby, and his uniform was neatly folded on the seat. He looked at her, tiny in the bed, her messy dark hair still mostly in the bun at the nape of her neck, bronze skin flushed and sleepy faced. She was beyond beautiful and he _wanted_ her. The wanting, it was what surprised him the most, he hadn't wanted anyone in ages.

The night before came back to her in snatches, she remembered him kissing her shoulders as he deftly found the tiny hidden zipper under her arm and pulled, letting the designer dress pool at her feet. The cool sheets on the giant bed chilled her hot skin as he set her delicately down, before he crawled atop her, her arms around his neck, bringing him to her. There had been hungry, hard kisses, desperate for satisfaction. Hands spanned his back, feeling the rippling muscles beneath her palm, marveling at the feel of his body, in such incredible shape, despite being more than twice her age. They'd laughed together, his deeper and quieter as he pressed his mouth to her side, kissing the softness of her breast and she felt the chuckles reverberate through her body. Nori couldn't recall what they'd laughed about, but she felt the pleasant, content feeling she got from being with someone she'd enjoyed.

"You snore." He informed her, looking amused.

"Only when I'm drunk."

"So I don't get to look forward to the sound of you sawing tiny logs tonight. Pity." He said.

"Do you want me to stay? I was going to catch the train...I only have the room for one night."

"And you didn't even use it." Loghain muttered sarcastically. "Do you want to stay?"

A knock rang out against the wooden door of the outer room and Nori could practically feel it echoing in her throbbing head. Their breakfast. Loghain got up silently, still waiting for her answer and put on one of the heavy terry cloth robes to answer the persistent knocking.

When she joined him in the other room, looking around at the stately space with sober eyes, looking at the decorative Gothic columns that lined the room. Loghain was seated in an armchair, upholstered in light blue brocade at a round table covered with a linen tablecloth, two places set. Like the night before, she realized that he wanted her to stay, but wouldn't pressure her or even voice his request. She watched him as he poured hot water into a waiting teacup, the gilded porcelain cup unexpectedly dainty against his large fingers.

"All weekend?" Nori inquired.

"For as long as you like. I leave on Monday, back to Gwaren." It was Friday.

"All weekend then." She repeated, smiling at him. Inside the robe she'd donned, she shivered.

He noticed, and smiled at her, attempting to put her at ease. Motioning to an identical chair for her to sit down, he uncovered their breakfast. Hers was mostly fruit, but there was toast, tea and orange juice, an assortment of pastries on a beaded silver platter. As she looked over the food, he started buttering a piece of toast, humming to himself. Nori smiled, she liked the sound, deeper and more resonant than his speaking voice. When he turned to hand her the toast, he smiled back at her, a completely different man than the one she sat down next to at the dinner the night before.

After breakfast, he called and had her things brought to his suite. She went to shower, taking her time in the bathroom as she unpinned her hair, bobby pins collecting in a dark heap on the marble vanity. After she started the water and stepped into the cavernous shower, letting all five showerheads hit her at once, Nori saw a dark shape moving in the bathroom. Loghain. Before he even opened the glass door, she was smiling, welcoming.

He carefully walked into the shower, adjusting his eyes to the rising mist, letting the multiple sprays of warm water massage his skin. She watched the streams of water run through his dark hair and down his back, not daring to touch him, but unable to think of nothing else. Her fingers itched as she restrained herself, fighting the need to caress his scars, to trail soapy bubbles across his skin. They said nothing, but after a few minutes under the water they were kissing again, the stone wall thankfully warm by the time he pinned her against it.

When they parted that Monday, he went with her to the train station. They walked next to each other, not touching, but it was comforting, his presence there at her side.

"Loghain." Nori said softly, reaching out to touch his cheek. "Thank you, truly." She felt older somehow, as if the weekend had stretched years.

"And you, Nori. I fear I'm not a romantic, so I can't say anything poetic, but know that I won't forget our time together."

He leaned over and kissed her once more, as people milled about, the crowd around them talking, laughing and eating. Commuters rushed from their morning trains, the last of the rush hour crowd forcing themselves to go into work. There was something blissful between the two of them, like being in the eye of the storm. They never said goodbye, but she when she looked out the window of the idle train, waiting for more passengers to board, she saw him still standing there, waiting on the platform. He wouldn't leave until after the train departed.

Whenever she'd seen Loghain after that, they'd behaved more like old friends. She never went to his bed again and he never asked, but the spark was always between them. Noticeable, Nori guessed, because everyone in the Viscount's office had felt it. She sighed, coming completely out of her recollection. She'd have to explain to Bran.

On the way home, he was silent, letting space fall between them in the back of the car. Bran hadn't been able to push it out of his mind as they worked, but he'd been careful not to let his insecurity betray him, and he wasn't about to let on to the Admiral. Bran suspected if he said anything, Loghain would just tell him to speak with his wife, then inform Nori that he didn't like Bran. The whole day had felt eerily similar to how it'd been after he found out about his last wife's indiscretions, but this time it was different, it was in the past, before they'd even really met. Nori had only been his wife for a matter of weeks, and he'd never asked for names of all the people she'd ever been with, but it something still gnawed at him, wearing away his confidence. He didn't really speak after they got home and Nori took a bath. Eventually over their dinner, he met her eyes.

"I just want to know if it was serious." Bran said, looking ashamed of himself.

His voice was snappish, more strained than the usual gentle tone that he reserved for her. It sounded as if he were still at the Keep. Nori frowned at him, unused to envy projecting from Bran. There were times when he was possessive, a trait that stemmed from the circumstances around his divorce, but he generally dealt with it on his own. This was the first time he'd ever questioned her.

Though he'd tried to deny it all afternoon, he couldn't any longer; he was jealous as soon as Loghain asked for his wife. Part of him wondered if that was what it was like for the others, to be around him and Nori and feel their heat, the link between them obvious, but to be completely excluded. It wounded him, the pain akin to the one his former wife inflicted upon him.

"No. It was brief."

"Thank the Maker." Bran said, his eyes less anxious than before. "I can't compete with decorated heroes, living legends like him."

"There's really no competition Bran, I married you. What we have is...it doesn't even compare."

He got up from the other side of the table and embraced her.

"I'm sorry I asked. There was just _something_ about the two of you together. At least I know you liked older men before me." He laughed and Nori joined in, squeezing him in her arms. In her mind, the memory of Loghain buried itself again as she tightened her arms around Bran, feeling his body tremble with his laughing breaths. In her hug she tried to convey what she was feeling, that she was his, just his, despite whomever she'd been with in the past. When he hugged her back, she knew he understood.


	34. I Beg Your Pardon Part 1

Bran was standing in the bathroom, shaving, when realization hit him. He was trimming the patch of hair under his chin, the one that Nori loved so much, her fingers always fondling it when they lie in bed together. It made him think of her, idle thoughts revealing things he hadn't given credence to before.

Loghain, it wasn't just that man making jealousy surge through him. It was his wife. She smiled at the Admiral, a sweet, small smile that looked private. Intimate. They'd just pulled apart from their hug and she was going to kiss his cheek, but he'd seen it, and he didn't even think she was aware that she'd smiled. It was so charmingly private, like the ones she wore for him.

She'd smiled like that for Loghain. In front of everyone they worked with. It had been festering in his mind since it happened, making him bitter. Not just the smile, but the not knowing. Bran knew things about Nori, and he loved thinking he knew her best, though he knew it wasn't true. She didn't like driving for a number of reasons but mostly because she was once driving a car in snow that slid through an intersection on ice and she thought she was going to die before she could move. There was this scent, currants and roses that he automatically associated with her, because she loved it so much. He'd thought he'd known about the people that mattered in her life, but he had no idea about Loghain. Maybe that bothered him too, that she hadn't counted Ferelden's most decorated war hero as significant.

Nori entered the bathroom and hoisted herself up on top of the vanity. She sat, looking at him as he shaved, not speaking until he finished. Her hair was pulled into a messy knot on the top of her head, black mixed with brandy colored brown tendrils framing her face. Dark eyes betrayed her concern, but her face still bore the signs of sleep and she was clad in her pajamas, fleece pants and a long sleeved shirt. He was in a towel, fresh out of the shower, readying himself for another weekend at the Keep.

'Things are weird between us." She stated in a quiet voice.

"I know." Bran agreed.

"They're never weird between us, though." She frowned, looking at him as he looked at his own reflection. "I mean, we've never encountered this before. You're mad at me. I don't even think you know how mad you are."

The sound of her voice was so hurt that it moved Bran. It wasn't accusatory, but a broken plea for his forgiveness and she hadn't done anything wrong. All at once he felt too heavy and he slumped slightly, shoulders no longer as straight when he turned towards her.

"Nori, no. You haven't done anything wrong."

"Would it help if I told you everything?" She asked, and he stiffened visibly, his eyes not meeting hers.

"You don't have to do that."

"I know. But I want to." She offered and cautiously, he nodded, damning his own jealous curiosity. The story was short, just a weekend with Loghain, only enough to let him understand.

Bran thought about it, all the things she'd been willing to share, the things he now knew. He knew what she looked like when she came, and at one time that had seemed intimate enough for him, but now it wasn't. She'd told him about her significant relationships, about the man before him, Anders, the teaching assistant in college she'd fallen in love with named Sigrun.

"What I really loved about her was that she used to throw these parties, costume parties for different decades. It was glorious. My favorite was the Mauve Decade, such delicious costumes!" She'd told him.

And despite popular belief, Bran wasn't blind, he knew about Isabela and had figured out about Fenris. The man couldn't look either him or Nori in the eye at work. There was something to that, something to knowing that at least Fenris was respectful of their union, enough that whatever he'd done with Nori made him uncomfortable.

Nori knew about him, she'd let him talk well into the night, spilling his secrets. It was their custom to lay in bed together, deeper, more personal conversations saved for the time when they could speak and embrace at the same time. Talking was always easier for him at night, the darkness providing an intimacy laced with anonymity.

"What's the worst thing you've ever done?" She'd asked one night, her body wrapped around his in bed. A finger drew shapes against his skin, the ragged edge of her nail catching slightly on his skin. They were warm under the blanket, naked and flushed, but their lovemaking was in the past and they were just there, together. Outside the windows there was nothing, fog blanked Kirkwall, blotting out the streetlights, blocking the stars and moon.

"I slept with my ex-wife." Bran said, feeling himself turn crimson in the darkness. It took her a moment to understand.

"Oh. OH!" Nori realized just what he meant. His former wife had gotten married immediately after their divorce and was pregnant. If he'd slept with her when she was his ex, then he actually cuckolded the man that did the same to him.

"She was confused and lonely. We had been together since we were young. I shouldn't have done it, but it was nice to be missed." He explained.

Even the memory of the admission made him feel vulnerable, too exposed. Nori had been understanding and gracious, never making him feel ashamed for the sad act. Why was it so difficult for him to do the same for her, to get past Loghain?

But the man felt significant. Even if Loghain hadn't meant much to her, it was obvious she'd been something more than just a weekend to him. In fact, Loghain probably would have married his wife, if he'd been in any position to ask her. Bran could feel that, just under the surface the whole time the soldier had been at the Keep. Whenever they'd exited the secure rooms, the quick eyes had scanned the people as they shifted rooms, looking for Nori. Whatever she felt for Loghain was in the past, but he obviously still cared for her, interested intensified by their brief encounters since they'd been together, the two meeting a few more times in their respective lines of work.

Bran turned to her, finally really looking at her as she sat on the vanity. Her face looked worried, she kept biting into her plump lower lip with a tooth, she looked so anxious.

"I'm being silly and insecure." He declared, putting his razor away. "You did nothing wrong, and it was ages ago." He reached his hand out, touching her face gently and she pulled him into a hug. He'd done more damage than he'd realized, and he felt her desperation in her hug. He leaned back a little, kissing her face and neck before he asked, "Do you still have that dress?"

She nodded.

"Put it on."

When he saw it, or rather, saw her in it, Loghain's continued infatuation seemed justified. Nori was captivating, the teasing cut of the falsely demure lace dress lending her an ethereal quality. If he'd sat next to her all night in that dress, he probably would have taken her home too. No, he was sure he would have, if he'd ever seen twenty-one year old Nori in that dress.

"You should wear it to Cullen's confirmation ball." Bran said.

"You think? It's a little big now." Nori said, looking at herself in a mirror. That it was a little large on her didn't surprise her, during college she'd been hard-pressed to get exercise outside of her ballet classes, but these days she had Aveline whipping her into shape. Sadly, when she tried it on, it sagged noticeably in the bust, but she was sure she could make it work. This time she'd just wear something under it, maybe a backless bustier.

"I will." Nori said, looking at Bran in the mirror. He met her eyes and smiled. He looked so tired, even in the reflection.

That exhaustion was helping to feed this bout of insecurity, but Loghain and his commanding presence didn't help. At least he was gone now, called away to other far-flung duties in service to Ferelden. Their jobs would be finished soon, the whole of the Keep and Nori found herself avidly anticipating the departure. Maybe she'd surprise Bran and take him away, someplace warm and full of weekenders like Llomeryn. At the very least, it would provide a much needed break from Kirkwall.

"Will you be long today?" Nori asked. It was Saturday and he was going to work, but she wasn't.

"I don't know. A lot of the end stuff had been pushed aside so we could deal with the recent rise in tensions." He said, sounding tired even as he talked about it. Fighting had erupted once again in Tevinter, but this time near the Orlesian border. Anytime Orlais readied soldiers, Ferelden did the same, setting off a chain reaction in some of the Free Marches states.

They were having a pardon issue, and that was really what called his attention to the Keep, despite the fighting. The pardon. He had to decide whether or not they would pardon a man, setting off a chain of pardons in the Free Marches, exonerating him for crimes in multiple city-states. He sighed, thinking of the charismatic and popular Jackson Arnold, a man that the public loved and was causing a national conundrum. It was really far too much work for the end of term.

The real problem wasn't if they should pardon him, but the precedent it would set. The Free Marches didn't have a formal government that prosecuted crimes, but they could convene a conclave, especially if the Federal Marches Investigators captured a criminal with warrants in several cities. The young man in question was an offender in nearly every city-state in the Free Marches, his fraud crossing many borders. The popular support was with him and Bran understood it, but resolved to put his personal feelings aside in this case. Arnold had committed several acts of medical, insurance and identity fraud to keep his ailing mother in treatments. When caught, he defiantly admitted that he would do it all again, because his mother was alive when she'd have surely died without medical attention.

It highlighted a broken system, health care that should be available to all, but really was only available to all that could afford it. Jackson and his mother had appeared on television interviews, arguing their case and talking about the lack of health care for their family, friends and neighbors, all while sitting together looking like the dutiful son and his mother. Insurance companies demanded punishment, doctors wanted payment and Jackson wanted to be made an example of, so he could become a champion to his cause. Marlowe was out of his depth with the issue, leaving it to fall on Bran's overburdened shoulders.

All that weekend, Bran was in and out of the office. On Monday morning, he only returned to shower and change his suit, riding to work with his wife a bonus. She didn't speak, but settled against his side, her worry seeping through her skin. He wrapped an arm around her, relishing the warmth and familiarity of her body. The air between them still felt heavy, despite their talk and he knew it was due to his absence at home. There was no reassurance, no laughter and light moments to ease them into a sense of forgetful reconciliation. Work was demanding everything from him and it was the worst possible timing, but sadly, typical of his job. Things would escalate and he'd work full throttle until the very end.

Days passed, and he wasn't seen at home much. By the middle of the week, they hadn't had dinner together once and Nori attempted to wait for Bran in his office, intending to drag him home.

Nori was sleeping on his couch when he went back to his office to check his messages. There was no way he'd be able to take her home tonight, he had to stay for as long as this took. Just a few more weeks, Bran thought to himself.

"Nori." He said softly, gently shaking his wife awake.

"Baby, can you come home?" She mumbled as she sat upright, looking bleary eyed at Bran.

"I'm afraid not."

"Alright, I'll go on." Nori sighed, correctly reading the unspoken. He couldn't come home because something was happening, something she didn't have clearance to know about. "Come home soon, okay?" She said anyway, knowing that it was completely out of his power.

"As soon as I can, I promise." Bran said as she stood up. He kissed her goodnight, pressing his lips to her full soft ones, wanting nothing more than to lay her back on the couch after he'd finished. He settled for kissing her forehead again when she looked down to slip her feet back into the shoes she'd kicked off to sleep.

Sebastian, Varric and the Viscount all entered his office at that moment, just in time to see Bran kissing Nori's sleepy head.

"Aren't you two just the happy newlyweds?" Varric smiled, walking over to Bran's desk and setting a folder down on it.

"We make no apologies." Nori said, eliciting laughter from her co-workers.

"Bran, that thing is on your desk. You can do the translation?" Varric asked. Bran nodded, but Nori looked at Varric in a bemused way.

"Translation?" She asked.

"Your husband can read about four other languages. It's easier to ask him than to try and find two of my staffers to sit together and translate." Varric explained and Nori cocked her head to the side, looking at Bran.

"Arcanum, because you practice law." Nori started to list what she could surmise. "What else?"

"Five actually. Orlesian, but I'm not fluent with the speech like you. Antivan, Rivani and modern Tevinter."

Had they been alone, she would have told Bran in no uncertain terms how absolutely _exciting_ she found this unknown facet of his intellect, but amongst their coworkers, she spared them the insight into their sex life. Instead she gave her husband the quickest of looks, the flash of her eyes and slight smile visible only to him as she turned her head to the side, busying herself with straightening the blanket she'd just divested. Bran smirked at her momentarily before turning back to the three men in his office.

"I'm going to head out now." Varric announced. "Nori, are you staying?"

"Nope. You've got good timing, I guess I've found my ride home." Nori said, looking back at Bran.

"I need to get my coat and we'll be off." Varric told her.

"Goodnight all." The Viscount said, waving both Nori and Varric off as he, Bran and Sebastian went back into their meeting.

Nori looked over her shoulder just once before she walked out with Varric and saw Bran disappearing into a darkened room with a guard stationed outside of it. His job was so much harder than he made it look, and she understood why he wanted to go back into the private sector.

"Are you ready, my lady?" Varric asked her as he slid an arm into his coat.

"Whenever you are." Nori replied.

She followed Varric to his car, getting in on the passenger side of his giant red SUV. The car was massive and luxurious, and seemed a perfect fit to Varric's personality. She slid onto a cool leather seat, pulling her coat closer around her body as he started the car. The engine revved then settled into a throaty purr as he slowly maneuvered the vehicle, the stereo playing quiet music as they pulled out of the parking garage.

"What are you doing after we leave office, Varric?" Nori asked.

"Going on a vacation where no body knows my name, and the giant drinks refill themselves."

"You know what I mean." Nori laughed, the sound filling the cavernous vehicle.

"My future plans haven't been decided yet, I'm entertaining offers. Why did you marry Bran? We could have finally started dating."

"He's some kind of witch I tell you. I don't understand it myself." Nori played along with Varric as the heated seat warmed places she hadn't even realized were cold.

"That...just might be true." Varric conceded and Nori laughed. "But truly, you look happy, and I'm happy for you. And I'm sure the Viscount's glad I got you out of the office before you proved to be too much of a distraction for your dear husband."

"What do you mean?"

"That look. You two always communicate with looks, but the one after I gave him that translation, the 'I want to jump you' look. I'm sure the Viscount appreciates Bran's full attention, not the half-hearted kind that has him sneaking back to his office."

Nori ignored Varric's accurate appraisal of the situation, deciding instead to pose him a question. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Bran's letting Sebastian learn a little in how to deal with civil unrest, and the pardons."

"How bad has it gotten? The unrest I mean."

"I don't know, but if you're wondering when your husband will be home tonight, the later it gets, the bigger the problem is." Varric answered.

"Hmpf. I know I shouldn't complain, but he hasn't been home for most of the week."

"Then it's a big problem, Nori." Varric said, a note of sympathy in his voice. "Bigger than our pay grades, I'm sure. The Viscount wouldn't ask him to stay if it wasn't, you know that."

In the darkness, she nodded and turned her attention out of the window, watching the streetlights go by. There was snow, but not a lot of it, dirty mounds of it that refused to melt still hung out in parking lots and alleys. Lively music with a comforting rhythm trickled from the speakers as he asked for a few directions to guide her home.

"Thanks for the ride." Nori said as the brownstone came into sight.

"Anytime." Varric said, watching her ease gracefully out of the car. She heard his car idling as he waited for her to enter the house and she turned and gave a short wave before pushing the door open. It was already late, she thought to herself, turning on lights as she passed them, hoping that Bran would make an appearance at home within the next few hours.

* * *

Cullen was in the Keep more often as it the time for transition drew closer, and there was always someone from his office around, taking notes and reporting back. Sebastian's face was nearly as exhausted as Bran's, both men working long hours together. Nori realized that he was not only going to have to continue dealing with this mess when they were gone, but bring everyone else up to speed as they set up a new office. It was almost enough for her to feel sorry for him, but in their weekly meeting he reminded her why he got on her nerves.

The incoming Viscount wanted to give her a job, and he desperately was searching for the right time and way to approach Nori. He didn't really know his wife's cousin all that well, she and Solona barely knew each other but Norina was highly regarded in their shared field. The problem was, she didn't seem to have any plans for after Dumar's administration ended. The woman had eschewed all attempts to get her on board with his team, instead citing family and the distant prospect of going back to school.

She was a newlywed, and Cullen couldn't fault her for wanting to spend more time with her husband. It must have been difficult for the two of them, both working such high pressure jobs in the Viscount's Keep. After they left, Bran would still be working, while she hadn't announced any immediate plans, despite the numerous offers he was sure she'd gotten. It made him a little suspicious of her motivations, and wondered if she could already be with child. He brushed the thought off, it was none of his business, certainly she could work while pregnant, Solona had worked for him while pregnant with two of their children, but he wondered if she was simply not announcing her plans or if she was waiting for the best offer she could get.

Plus there was the issue of the Jackson Arnold's pardon. Whatever Viscount Dumar decided would come down on his head, and Cullen wanted every expert he could find to help him get through the fallout. While he had every confidence in his team, and she wasn't working on the pardons with Dumar, that was strictly high-level, he wanted her input on the issue.

In the end, he set up an appointment through Brennan, ignoring the curious glance her assistant gave him as he refused an offer to just enter Nori's office. Cullen had no intention to ambush her with the offer, and wanted to appear in control when he presented it. A few hours later he met her in a conference room, tea at the ready next to a folio of information prepared for her, easier than trying to memorize and explain everything to her at once.

"Why don't you join my team, Norina? If you've no desire to stay as full time staff, you could become a consultant for us." Cullen suggested. Nori was sitting across from him, her head bent as she looked over the information in the prepared folder. One hand rested on the tea he'd set out for her, and Cullen smiled.

Everything was laid out in front of her, and she said nothing for several minutes, reading through the information. Cullen felt the smile gradually fade from his face, and he struggled not to betray a sign of nervousness. Watching her read, her expression showing nothing, remaining closed as she took in the information. When she finally looked up, she spoke with a finality that made dread surge within him.

"I'll need time."

"Of course." He said magnanimously, nearly laughing with relief. He'd though she was going to turn him down outright, and time was the least he could give her for even considering his offer. The feeling in his gut told him that he'd already won a small victory, just getting her to listen to him.

Tucking the papers back in the folio, Nori rose silently and nodded at the future Viscount before leaving the room. She didn't know what to make of the bundle of papers she carried under her arm now, but it was an impressive offer from Cullen. It was just a starting point, she'd negotiated better contracts than this one and her mind whirred, thinking of improvements and things she could ask for. School and her book were her plans for the future, but both of them weren't as enticing as a new job, a chance to keep working in the system she so loved.

Entering her office, she closed the door behind her. Her eyes landed on a framed picture of her and Bran as she sat back down at her desk. Nori picked up the silver framed photo, staring at it. She had her arms wrapped around his waist, his arm over her shoulders, the wind lifting the ends of her hair around as they stood amongst the autumn colors of the park. Aveline had taken the picture, a brief second before they'd all departed, Bran had been picking Nori up.

There was a reason she wanted to get out of this kind of work, even just for a short while. She already knew that Bran was not going to be pleased about this offer, and she didn't relish starting another argument with her mostly absent husband.

But how could she _not_ consider Cullen's offer?


	35. I Beg Your Pardon Part 2

"Why call me, of all people?" Nori asked the handsome young man in front of her.

It was so close to the very end of it all, that she almost didn't believe it Brennan gave her the message. A few days before she'd gotten a call from the a very high profile lawyer, who had a client that "needed her ear." And so she'd gone to the meeting at his office, unsure of what would possibly make Jackson Arnold so interested in her.

The room was almost as impressive as Bran's office in the Viscount's Keep, and when she'd come in, she wondered if this is what he could expect once they departed. It lacked a large picture window like his, and the smells that filled the room were unfamiliar, but not unpleasant. The warm scent of roasted coffee dominates, but there's something antispetically clean about the room at large, as if it's only being used for her benefit, though it's disguised as an office.

Refusing to be either rattled or impressed by her surroundings, Nori opted for cool and professional when she spoke to Jackson Arnold and his lawyer, who both sat across from her. Jackson wasn't wearing a suit, but rather the button-down shirt and pleated slacks he was always wearing when he went in and out of court, memorable but not flashy as he played the pauper with the heart of gold. His close-cropped brown hair set off a handsome face, big eyes and full lips against a strong jawline and a large nose. She knew from interviews that he looked a great deal like his mother, the two sitting close together as she smiled on her loving son.

"Ms. Hawke." The lawyer began, but Jackson cut in smoothly scowling at the other man.

"He means, _Mrs. Williams_." He corrected, flashing her a smile that she couldn't help but return. "And may I offer congratulations on your recent wedding, messere."

"Thank you. But you still haven't answered my question."

"I think you know that you're considered a friend to many people who have had their grievances...ignored by other politicians. Your articles and the events you speak at make you uniquely visible, as does your lineage, no matter what name you use. And right now, I'm in need of a friend, messere." Jackson explained quietly.

"If this is about your pardon, shouldn't you be talking to my husband?" Nori thought it wasn't, but wanted to get it clear before they continued.

"Not at all, not at all. I rather think I've got the more influential half of the couple with me right now, if you'll forgive my saying so. Besides, I don't want you to go and beg the Viscount on my behalf. I can do that on nightly television. I just want you to take a look at these insane policies, procedures and laws."

"I'm in a lame duck office, serah. There's nothing more to be done from my end." Nori was sincerely apologetic. Whenever she and Bran discussed the case, she'd been frustrated that she couldn't help, that she'd hadn't had a chance to change anything or amend any laws that might help him while she could have.

"But you won't always be." Jackson Arnold said, rising from his chair. He scooted it forward, towards her and then sat back down, leaning in. His dark eyes were alight with brightness and she found herself holding her breath as she waited for him to speak again. "And as I said before, in the past you've made your opinions known in a variety of ways."

He was charismatic - one day he could probably give Cullen a run for his money, should he ever have political aspirations, but she didn't think he did. Giving him the once over, she couldn't help but see him in a different light, a lecturer and intellectual, certainly, a powerful ally - but never a politician in his own right.

"No, messere, I think you want to help me. Forgive me for being so blunt, but we don't have the luxury of time. My mother had the same disease that killed your father, though not as severe. It would have killed her, bullshit regulations and technicalities getting in the way of saving lives while drug companies court politicians. I know that I may have acted hastily in some instances, but it was done out of frustration and love, a desire to not see someone suffer when they didn't have to." Jackson was speaking fervently, his words filled with heat as he went on. The lawyer might not have even been in the room, it was just her and him now, two people leveling with each other.

"I understand." Nori said, encouraging him, waiting for him to go on.

"If anyone would, it would be you. You've seen someone die." He gulped back emotion before resuming, and she watched him, unable to stay unaffected by his presence. "I just want to make sure this shit doesn't happen again, messere. I can't bear to think of it. Things may or may not go my way, but you can change it for others. You're one of the best hopes we have of getting making these corporate theives stop charging so much for the things we need to live."

There were tears swimming in his eyes now, but real anger there, and urgency. She'd thought that this would be an attempt to sweet-talk her into speaking with Bran about the appeal, but it wasn't at all. It was a plea, a visceral begging stripping her bare, hoping that she could influence not the past, but the future.

"I, I'll do what I can." Nori stuttered, not sure how to respond to such a vehement petition.

"Mr. Arnold." The thin voice of the lawyer was barely audible after the rumbling baritone of Jackson Arnold, still ringing in her ears. "I'm sorry, messere, but our time is up here."

"Of course." Jackson mumbled, still intent on Nori. "Please, do what you think is right, but I know you are an ally. Remember my story whenever you are able to make change."

Standing swiftly, he pushed the chair back where it belonged. It would seem their talk was over before it truly began, but Nori suspected that his time was very limited. She was still sitting, her hands clasped on the arms of the chair, and she was afraid to remove them, because she knew her hands would be shaking.

"And please, do tell your husband that I am a great fan of his work as well. I know he does pro-bono work every year for a few different places. It's a great thing when our government leaders give back to our community." Jackson offered his hand to her and she shook it without thinking, letting him clasp her hand in his, calming the quakes that he'd caused. "He's done many great things in his own right, though he isn't as visible as you are. But I do greatly admire him as well."

"He will be pleased to hear that." Nori answered, a little more calm now that she didn't have to stare directly into those big, pleading eyes. The lawyer ushered her out, and Jackson smiled at her once more, but it did little to shake the desperate, unsettled feeling that nagged at her.

He was absolutely genuine in his desire to help others, without regard to himself. There was something wrong, broken when people like him were so rare and few. Whatever the outcome of his pardon petition, she would do as he'd asked - it was the least she could do.

"There has been no promise of aid from Ferelden, but the city-states of the Free Marches may still send supplemental relief workers." The newscaster's Orlesian accented voice said as Nori sat on the edge of the bed, in front of the television, grimacing a few evenings later.

Bran was laying behind her, sniffling softly as he suffered the indignity of a cold. The long hours he'd been putting in recently doing him no favors, making him too weary to fight off the illness. Nori smoothed the blanket on top of his legs, trying to be of comfort as they both sat there, watching the increasingly gruesome images on the news. He was broken-hearted over this development, his long days and pleading phone calls unable to stop the spread of violence.

He'd worked until the office grew silent around him, nearly empty, only Cullen's aides still working in their shared office. He was trying to get someone to listen to him, to honor old agreements and treaties before the whole of Thedas erupted into armed clashes. His head pounded and body ached, he could feel the sickness rising within him, but Bran thought he could make just one more call, convince someone at least to listen to the last hopes of Dumar's administration. Convinced he was trying to do nothing more than ensure a swan song for Dumar, no one ever did, waving off his pleas and concerns, and he knew enough to see the road laid out before him, that they weren't going to get anything moving.

When he'd gone home that night, he'd entertained notion of sleeping until he awoke from his nightmare, calling in sick until the week was done. He hated being ineffectual, unable to help or hinder much at all. Bran dragged himself into the bed after a quick shower, intending to just sleep until either the alarm or hunger woke him. Unexpectedly, Nori came into the room bearing a tray, and he knew instantly that she didn't make it, but rather ordered the food. The most telling clue was that there was meat on the plate that was presumably his.

"You should eat before you drop off to sleep, tempting as it is." She said, sitting down next to him. He kissed her on the ear as she carefully arranged the tray between them. Warm hands touched his as she handed him the plate of food. He was much too tired to provide conversation, but she'd turned on the news for the short duration of their meal. When she'd finished, she leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

"What are you going to do?" He asked, watching her stretch at the end of the bed.

"Work probably, take a bath."

"That almost makes me want to stay up with you." He said, smirking at her. "Dinner was unexpected, but appreciated. It was very thoughtful."

"You're welcome. I figured I shouldn't subject you to my cooking in your current state." She was hesitant but asked anyway, "How is it going? I mean I know you can't really tell me, but is this likely to be done any time soon?"

"No, it's likely to turn into an escalating mess, though it will be Cullen's mess, not ours." Bran informed her sadly. "But there is hope, though dangerously slim. I keep pushing for further diplomatic ties, but I don't think I'm being heard. It's not the most popular suggestion." Just talking about it was making him feel more tired, weariness blanketing his body, sickness sending a chill down it.

"Jackson Arnold requested I visit him, so I went a few days ago." She admitted. It hadn't be a secret, not exactly, but she didn't tell Bran before she'd gone, especially since he'd been so busy. Part of her wanted to tell him about the whole incident in detail, and how unexpected his admiration for Bran had been, but she decided to wait until he was more...himself again.

"Yes, I can see where he'd be most anxious to speak to you." Bran's eyes were shrewd, even through the cold medicine that was settling in, making him sleepier. "What happened?"

"It was strange, he didn't want me to lobby on his behalf, but rather to make sure no one else had to do what he did. It wasn't a long meeting, but he did mention that he was a fan of your pro-bono work." Nori smiled at him as she gave a small shrug. "Seems like you've got a fan. I didn't mention it before because I didn't want influence you either way."

"I think the Viscount has rather made up his mind in the matter anyway, but I'm surprised he didn't try for one last push. And I am surprised you went." Bran said, but then looking at her face, he smirked. "But then again, you wanted to meet him. Almost like a celebrity to you, isn't he?"

"Go to sleep." Nori instructed, avoiding the all too accurate assessment and heading towards the bathroom.

"You'll have to tell me about your new crush some other time." Bran's voice still held the hint of his roguish smile, though he sounded even further away than he had a few seconds ago. He'd drop off to sleep in just a few moments, probably before her bath was even filled.

She smiled back at him, unable to resist the sight of the sleepy, smirking man in bed with the blankets pulled to his chin, tousled ginger hair spread across his pillow. "I'll check on you when I'm out."

The insistent blaring of the alarm proved insufficient to wake Bran, and Nori found she almost didn't have the heart. If things hadn't been coming to their conclusion so rapidly at the Keep, if his presence wasn't definitely needed, she might have let him continue to sleep like the dead, but she couldn't.

Bran wasn't feeling much better even after several hours into work, but he'd been managing to get a decent amount of things done, relying heavily on Ruvena throughout the day. After a working lunch prepping Sebastian to assume his responsibilities, he closed the door to his office, in desperate need of a nap.

"Maker, you look awful." Marlowe had somehow gotten into his office without his noticing, and Bran struggled upright on the couch, his limbs heavy from his interrupted sleep.

"You don't look much better yourself, and you can't even claim to be sick." Bran croaked at his friend and the Viscount laughed, sitting down next to him.

Clapping a hand on Bran's shoulder, he looked over at him. "This is all going to be over soon. I appreciate that you're here now, even though you're spreading the damn plague with your very presence." Both men chuckled for a moment before Marlowe went on. "It hasn't always been easy here, but it was always an honor. Thank you for sharing it with me."

"The honor, my friend, was mine." Bran replied. With the end in sight, and so many unknowns for the future, it felt like the right to admit how much this position, this place, and Marlowe had meant to him over the years. "I wouldn't have done it for anyone else, and I doubt I could have. You were always one of the best."

"Thank you. I just wish Saemus were here now that I'm retiring." Marlowe's voice was thick as he dropped his gaze downward, looking away. Silence stretched between them, but it was as comfortable as their friendship, neither needing to say much else. "I should get back to my office - do you want those portraits back?"

Years ago, Marlowe had admired pieces from Bran's private collection, and he'd had them put in the Viscount's office. Since they weren't the property of the Viscounty, they couldn't remain unless Bran wished to lend it, which he did not. Soon he and Nori would have a whole house, much bigger than his townhouse, and there were many, many empty walls in there.

"Tell Ruvena to have them removed and put into my storage until the renovation is finished on the house." Bran's stuffy voice replied. Part of him still couldn't believe they were packing up the office, but it felt like it was the right time.

"Alright. We've got the Rivaini ambassador presenting their parting gifts sometime this afternoon." More ceremony, but at least it didn't require thinking at this point, just smiling for the cameras.

"I haven't forgotten. I can still do my job, even when a little under the weather." Bran sniffed at him, though the haughty tone was diminished by the sneeze at the end of his proclamation.

With another laugh, Marlowe exited the room and Bran went to his closet to put on a shirt he hadn't slept in. He would miss this place.

On the last working day, the announcement came, Jackson Arnold would be pardoned - and though it was an isolated case, the atmosphere in the Keep felt changed to Nori. He hadn't deserved the harsh sentences that he would have had to endure, but she feared he wouldn't get away without paying some price - insurance companies would have him and his mother in and out of civil court for years. Perhaps she'd tried to put a good spin on it and have one of them offer retroactive free care, it would be her first real action in fulfilling the request he'd voiced the other day. As she thought about it, her shoulders sagged tiredly, and her mouth pinched into a hard line. She was too tired of politicking until the very end, and too far gone to continue thinking.

Pushing her glasses up off her face, she sat back in her chair and pinched the bridge of her nose. It was late, but she bet Cullen was still here. She had to tell him what she thought of his job offer.

Instead of discussing it with Bran, Nori had kept the offer to herself, turning it over in her mind. She had been unsure how to approach Bran, or even if she was considering the job seriously. No, this had been an offer just for her, and hers alone to mull over.

It wasn't that she didn't want to work, but rather that she didn't know that she wanted to do the same kind of work. The degree program she was to enter was to be a means to an end, a chance to do something different. For all her words that she was following her father, she'd never have his level of influence, simply because she didn't possess his demeanor and people skills. Too pugnacious, too incendiary. She liked to have time to think before she spoke, and didn't do well on the fly as Malcolm Hawke had.

There was also her desire to be known for intellect and not to be shoved in front of a camera. Also, Cullen was married to her cousin. As if she didn't have enough accusations being thrown around by using the name Hawke, she'd gone and married Bran. She wasn't sure she could handle working for another person that was somehow related to her.

It was over, decided, no need to talk it over with her husband. He'd support her either way. There was more to get her out of the Keep than to make her stay. Telling Cullen was the last step.

She comforted herself by saying that change was never easy, and it should make her a little afraid. But rather than fear, she mostly felt relief. For as much as she loved this job, the chance to work and think, to see her changes in action, it was wearing on her. The people that had been here for years had the air of the senior class from high school, and she could understand it. It wasn't easy work, and it took its toll. Nori had no interest in signing up for another session, not when the future was so tantalizingly unknown.

The rejection was written, not on her face, but rather in her cool, professional demeanor, the measured steps she took and the careful way she held herself. Cullen could see it coming before Norina even entered the room and he sighed, wondering what reasons she had for not joining him, but understanding at the same time.

"Ser Cullen, I'm very sorry, but I won't be able to join you." Nori said, getting straight to the point.

"I'm very sorry to hear that, but I understand. Is there anything I can offer to make you reconsider?"

"I'm sorry, Ser, but no." She shook her head resolutely as Cullen's hazel eyes looked her over. He nodded once at her, and as she turned to go, spoke again.

"Please let me know if you change your mind." He tried again, knowing that she wouldn't take the offer. The smile he got in return was small, pitying, as was the slight nod he got.

She wouldn't ever work for him, he knew it. Once she'd gone from the room, the door closed behind her, he let out the curse he'd been holding in, the vehemence of it making the aide at his side jump. His administration was off to a poor start, and it hadn't even begun yet.

There would be time to fix things, he supposed, and the talent would come, as long as he showed himself to be capable. He was just anxious, with every moment his ascension drew nearer, and Cullen wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do at all. It had never been his intention to lead a city, to be quite so visible and big. He didn't know how men like Dumar handled it, how he could handle it.

Nori didn't look back at him as she left the room. Focusing forward, she waved merrily to Varric as she passed him in the hallway, but didn't stop to talk. She was taking Brennan out for drinks after she cleared out her office.

Before he could leave, he checked his office one last time. Professionals would come and clear the rooms, cleaning and refreshing for the new occupants, but he walked slowly around, unable to stop himself. Memories flooded him, and Bran had to actually sit down to endure them. He'd loved this job, but hadn't realized he'd have such a visceral reaction to the end. It had been hell at times, ending his first marriage and through the death of Marlowe's wife and son. But it had afforded him a chance to do good, and he knew for certain that he had been one of the best in his position - it was what kept him at the Keep year after year, why he never even gave the occasional job offers more than a cursory glance.

Mostly, it had given him Nori - their chance meeting here had changed his whole life.

It was terribly hard to leave, to just walk out of the door, but he did just that, not even looking back over his shoulder once he put his mind to leaving. It was better to just be done. He needed sleep before tomorrow's official end.

A day later Cullen sat in the room that was soon to be his office, almost all traces of the Dumar erased from it, except for the man himself, who sat next to him. The formal ceremony was this afternoon, and he was nervous, waiting, trying not to show the anxiety that threatened to topple him over.

"Cullen, don't worry. It will daunting at first, living up to me, but I assure you, I'm only twice as good as you've heard." The outgoing Visount jested with the new one and Cullen looked a little more relieved as he grew more comfortable with Marlowe. It was impossible not to like the man, who was doing little to maintain his stiff, formal demeanor these days. He was affable, and quite charming - traits Cullen was sure were part of the reason he'd gotten the post of Viscount in the first place.

"I'll do my best, Your Excellency." He answered and Marlowe clapped him on the back.

"I know you've set up your basic staff already, but do you have a best friend?"

"Yes..." Cullen answered, unsure of where this was going.

"If he's smarter than you, put him on your staff, ideally as your Chief of Staff. That's what I did and he's saved my sanity more times than I care to think about."

"My wife is undoubtedly smarter than I, but I don't think she'd want the job." He said with mock seriousness. "Actually, I've already secured Sebastian Vael for the position." Cullen said, looking at the Viscount, measuring his reaction.

"Aw, that's too bad." Marlowe looked disheartened for a moment but then recovered and said "Then make your friend an adviser. I'm sure Sebastian will serve you well."

"Excuse me, but it's time." Elthina said as she came through the door. She was all brisk efficiency still but Marlowe could detect some sadness within her. He had taken a leaf out of Bran's book and kept her on as his personal secretary, he still had diplomatic status and a need to attend certain events, but as a retired Viscount his visibility would be greatly reduced, as was his need for staff. Elthina was the only full-time staff he'd taken.

The two men stood, ready to depart in their heavy, ceremonial robes. They exited to the throne room, where Marlowe would take a stance on the dias and watch as Cullen took oaths and was crowned, swearing to protect the people of Kirkwall with all of his being, in front of the Maker. Even in the cold weather, the windows were open. The room was packed and sweltering, staff and dignitaries, cameras and crews filling the space.

It had been the same when Marlowe took over for Perrin Threnhold. He'd almost forgotten. And tonight there would be a ball in celebration of the new Viscount. Wryly, Dumar smiled to himself, hoping that he could catch a nap before he was expected.

Bran was still ill, not feeling up to going to any kind of formal event at all, but he managed to put himself together and get into his tuxedo in record time. At least he didn't look at all sick, he was as striking as ever when she kissed him before they went out to the car. The mood was subdued between them as they rode in the car, neither really speaking. Nori looked resplendent, almost as beautiful as on their wedding day, wearing the black dress she'd purchased so long ago in Ferelden.

"We don't have to stay long." She muttered to him from his side. Bran simply nodded. He wasn't planning on it.

They arrived to a press line, with both Nori and Bran giving statements before entering, but Bran's interviews took longer - his opinion more sought after than hers tonight. Everything they said was in glowing support of former Viscount Dumar and praising the new Viscount, wishing him the best for his administration. Once they entered, the scene in front of them was a giant dinner party, with guests mingling and loud voices. She heard him groan softly as he looked over the crowd of people, but he didn't show his annoyance to anyone but her, snapping into professional mode, greeting and shaking hands with the notables inside the reception.

It wasn't until after Cullen's remarks Bran slumped into a chair next to her, and she could tell that he was counting the moments until they could leave. It wasn't just Bran being surly - they weren't supposed to stay until the end, it was the custom of the outgoing Viscount and his staff to leave early, but she wanted a dance before it was all over.

If they had to dance just one dance, she wanted it to be a slow dance. She waited until the musicians started a slower number and took Bran's hand, leading him onto the floor. "This isn't so bad, is it?" She whispered to him, though truly, she had no more desire to talk. There had been nothing but talk all night.

"It's like our wedding, except this time you're wearing black." Bran quipped in a somewhat gravelly voice. Whatever medicine he'd taken seemed to be wearing off and he was flagging, unable to pretend any longer.

Nori laughed softly at his joke, and didn't try to dance, not up to putting him through the effort. Instead they swayed together, her head resting on his shoulder. It was a little like their wedding, the sea of familiar faces, her mother was there with Dumar, Sebastian, and Varric. Even her predecessor, Emeric had come out for the occasion, though it felt more sober, much more like an end than a beginning.

"For the end of a job, this isn't a bad party." She tried again, hoping he'd shed some of his bad mood before they left.

"No, I guess it isn't. I'm going to miss the position, more than I can say. It's been a long time since I've had a different job."

"Shh." Once he'd started talking, she realized that he really hadn't needed to. It was all they'd been talking about for months, since before their wedding. "Let's just dance." She whispered softly to him. He nodded, letting her sink closer to him, pressing herself up against his chest, their sway becoming slower and more slight, the two closer to hugging than dancing.

But if this was to be his last official act, he didn't mind it at all.


	36. Epilogue

Last year, for the end of the year they'd gotten married. This year Bran was working, after they celebrated their first anniversary just two days before. He hadn't thought he'd need to work for quite so long on the eve of First Day, but he looked at his clock and realized he had less than two hours before he missed it. Wisely, he packed up his bags and laptop, deciding to take the work home instead. Even if he was still working, he'd rather be with Nori than alone at his office.  
  
There was no one else around as he closed the door to his office. He'd sent Ruvena home some time ago, no need to ruin her plans for the night. Against the wooden floor his shoes made a clacking noise that echoed through the deserted, cavernous building. The ding of the elevator bell chimed far too loudly in the silence that surrounded him and Bran gave an involuntary shiver. It was too lonely in here, being in the glass building without the normal bustle of people and hum of machinery made it feel like a mausoleum.  
  
Exiting the underground parking lot, he heard revelers walking the streets, going from bar to bar in celebration. People spilled out of buildings, talking loud, happy, drunk voices clambering in and out of the cabs that already lined the curbs. He drove slowly, carefully navigating the roads, his eyes alert for drivers that weren't as careful as he, thoughts of Saemus in the back of his mind. Bran blew out a sigh of relief when he saw the gates that guarded the drive to their new house. Pressing the button of the remote that he kept in his car, he watched the mechanized black iron retract in front of him and he eased his car up the absurdly long driveway that led to the garage.  
  
Sometimes he still had to marvel at the house that Marlowe had bestowed upon them. It was fantastically opulent, but he and Nori worked hard to make it a home and not simply a show-house. Bran chuckled to himself as he looked at the four white columns that stood in front of the large double front doors to the house. It was funny that the house was now his home - that anyone at all lived in it after the house had been used as a show piece for so long.  
  
Life was different here than it had been in his brownstone, but Jason had settled in nicely there and taken a job as a physical therapist that specialized in working with children. When Bran went to visit, it no longer really felt like his house, despite still owning it.  
  
Home was where Nori was, and as he pulled into the two car garage, he grew even more anxious to see her. Bran opened the door that led to the kitchen and instinctively looked out the back door, onto the snow covered porch to his left as he came in, wondering if she'd brought in firewood or if he should do it. Though the lights were on in the room, a quick glance told him that she wasn't there and he decided to find her first before he went back into the cold. Bran discarded his coat and shoes, leaving them in their usual spot behind the back door, hanging his coat next to Nori's things. The scent of food hung in the air, something that smelled like soup and he wondered if she'd cooked or just ordered something.  
  
He hadn't really expected her to be in the kitchen, she usually only sat in there when he cooked, sometimes perched on the counter near the prep sink if she wanted to talk to him, or curled into the nook at the table, watching him work with a smile on her face, a book opened in front of her. She did her homework or wrote as he made food, and he smiled at the empty table as he walked past it.  
  
Off the kitchen was a family room, a room they used for watching movies together and it was where Nori played video games. He peeked in the room, but she wasn't there either, the television mounted on the wall devoid of life as he glanced around the space. Bran moved on through rooms he knew she wouldn't be in. He didn't bother looking in the open doors to the formal dining room and walked through the Great Room without glancing around. He did look in the library that she used as study, but only gave it a cursory look, if he was this far into the house without seeing her, she was almost certainly in the bedroom.  
  
The house had three bedrooms, just as his old house had, but the square footage of the house was much larger, the rooms bigger. Originally there had been four, but when they remodeled the house, they took one of the small bedrooms and combined it with their own master suite. Bran was happy with the result, there was a sitting area attached to their bedroom that gave him a place to put his desk, but it wasn't visible from the bed.  
  
"You're home!" Nori exclaimed from beneath a pile of blankets. She was reading in bed, and he looked over at the wall. She'd lit the fire, the flames licking the wood she'd brought in as it warmed the room. "I didn't think you'd get here in time." She admitted.  
  
"I was still working, but it was creepy being in the building alone. I sent Ruvena home hours ago, and I missed you." Bran explained, putting down the bag that held his laptop.  
  
"I missed you too, and I have good news. I checked and we should be able to see the fireworks from the verandah."  
  
Outside of their bedroom was a verandah that spanned most of the back of their house, leading out to the yard. Nori wasn't crazy about the yard, she thought the upkeep of the large lawn was wasteful and spent the last spring trying to turn the expanse of grass into a xeriscape with the help of a gardner. The results had been successful in varying degrees, but Bran agreed with her plans and hoped next year would yield a more attractive result.  
  
"That is good news." They'd planned a quiet year end, champagne and watching the fireworks through the windows. Bran took off his suit jacket and loosened his tie, wanting nothing more than to shower at the moment. Nori settled back in the bed, already clad in her pajamas as she read her book.  
  
"Are you hungry?" She called after him as he disappeared into the bathroom. "I made vegetable stew." Bran stuck his head back in the room at that information.  
  
"You made dinner that wasn't cupcakes?" Bran teased his wife and he laughed at her look of mortification at his words.  
  
"I only did that once." She made a face at him, but joined in his laughter all the same.  
  
"Yes," he said drolly, "there were all those other times when we had pancakes and one particularly memorable time when you made nothing but loaves of banana nut bread."  
  
"Hey! All of it was pretty good, even if it wasn't specifically dinner food." Nori said, sitting up with an indignant look on her face.  
  
"It was good." A shirtless Bran walked back to the bed and kissed her, running his hand through her hair. "Especially because it wasn't dinner food."  
  
When he got out of the shower he took out his laptop and she could hear him just around the corner, typing, the quick thuds of his fingers against the keys, the shallow clicking noise of his mouse as he switched windows from document to document and whatever else he was looking at on the internet. Midnight drew closer and when it was about ten minutes before, she got up and sought him out.  
  
"Champagne?" She asked and Bran pulled away from the desk and looked up at her. He was still wearing his robe.  
  
"I'll go get it." He replied and he walked past her, stopping only to put on pants and discard his robe, draping it over one of the armchairs in the room. He'd selected the bottle this morning and called Nori this afternoon, reminding her to put it in the special wine refrigerator he'd gotten when they moved. There was always something awful about improperly managed champagne and he hoped that it hadn't been chilled for too long.  
  
Bran opened the bottle back in their bedroom, pouring two glasses and setting them on the nightstand on his side of the bed. Nori had disappeared and he called out to her.  
  
"Come on, there's one minute left. You're going to miss the fireworks." He said, knowing that they would detonate the most spectacular ones right at midnight.  
  
When she emerged from the bathroom, Bran had his back to her, picking up her glass to hand it to her. He missed her entrance, but looked up just in time to see her standing in front of him in black lingerie, her hair smooth and sleek, lipstick on her pretty lips, makeup emphasizing the eyes that were no longer hidden behind her glasses. Bran felt himself growing warm at just the sight of her and he smiled wolfishly at his wife.  
  
"Are you trying to seduce me?" He asked her, cocking his head to the side as he did.  
  
"Best way to ring in the new year, don't you think?" She answered, taking the glass of champagne from his hand.  
  
Just as he was going to respond, the fireworks cracked in the background and she clanked her glass against his. Nori turned to look out of the window, to see the shower of colored light as she drank her champagne. Bran drank his down in one and set the glass aside, not bothering to pour himself more. He watched her drink the bubbly wine, growing needier as her lips pressed to the rim of the glass, leaving the faint impression of her lipstick behind. When she sat the nearly empty glass down, he took his chance, kissing her neck from behind as an arm snaked up the front of her, groping her through the lacy bustier she wore.  
  
"Can we go slow tonight?" She asked in a soft voice. Bran could see her sheepish face reflected in the glass of the window and he nodded.  
  
What she meant was could they not play games or do all the extra things that he so often asked to indulge in. He knew that some of his...proclivities made her insecure from time to time, she started to think that she was somehow not enough just because he liked her to dress up. The truth was that she was more than enough, always, but being able to share his fantasies with her made him feel more fulfilled whenever they had sex, no matter how or what they did.  
  
Slow had become her way of phrasing it, her need to be cherished and worshiped without adornment. Bran was always willing to do that for the woman that set his mind alight with dreams he'd share with no one else, the only person other than his son that he'd give his life for. When he brought her to the bed, he was gentle, kissing and touching her, doing the things he knew she liked. In the background, the fireworks still were exploding in noisy showers of color as Bran made love with Nori, ever so slowly, as the first day of a new year began.


End file.
